Matthew Honeycutt

Matthew JeffreyThe Return: Midnight - Chapter 18 Honeycutt (also known as Matt; b. 1974) was the son of Mr. Honeycutt and his wife. He grew up in Fell's Church, Virginia, and was a close friend of Elena Gilbert. This friendship eventually led to his introduction to the supernatural world, and he helped fight against Katarina von Swartzschild, Klaus, Inari. He now studies at Dalcrest College.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Matt was born in 1974 to Mr. and Mrs. Honeycutt. He grew up in Fell's Church, Virginia, and was particularly close to his great-uncle Joe. His family was not particularly wealthy, and his father died when Matt was young.
During the summertime, Matt often, if not always, went to his grandparents' farm to help out, which resulted in him getting a long-lasting suntan.
===Twelfth grade===
====Friendship with Stefan====
In September, 1991, Elena broke up with Matt, though she denied that it was because of Stefan Salvatore. Though upset, Matt agreed to remain friends, and soon developed a friendship with Stefan, who joined the football team. Despite accepting Elena's feelings for Stefan, as well as remaining friends with her, he was hurt when he heard the untrue rumor that Frances Decatur had spread; that Elena had embarked on a romantic relationship with Jean-Claude while on holiday in France. Elena admitted to Matt that she had caused Frances to spread the rumor before attempting to ask him a favor, but Matt refused, angrily commenting on her selfishness. He apologized afterwards, and later went to the Homecoming Dance with her. After Elena disappeared from the party with Tyler Smallwood, Vickie Bennett and Dick Carter, Matt went with Bonnie and Meredith to find her. Instead, they found Vickie Bennett, who had been attacked by Katarina von Swartzschild. 
Matt later attended the Haunted House fundraiser dressed as a werewolf, and was present when Tanner was discovered dead. Matt, on Elena's urging, went to the boys' changing rooms and found Stefan, who had been accused of the murder, telling him to run. Stefan did so, after making Matt promise to look after Elena.
True to his word, Matt stayed outside of Elena's house in his car, making sure she did not leave. However, she did sneak out, with Bonnie and Meredith, prompting Matt to follow them to Wickery Bridge. Matt learnt that Bonnie, who was psychic, had had a vision of Stefan stuck in a cold, wet place, and thought that that meant Drowning Creek. Matt, however, deduced that it was a well, and might be the well at the Francher family farmhouse. He was correct, and the four of them proceeded to rescue him.
====Defending the town====
After Elena "drowned" in the creek (in reality, became a vampire), Matt was devastated. Stefan approached him and asked him what he would do for Elena. Answering that he would do anything, Stefan took him to Elena and urged her to drink his blood, which she did, though Matt was shocked at learning what she had become. He was even more so once he learnt that Stefan had attacked Tyler Smallwood, who had tried to rape Elena after the Haunted House fundraiser.
In his own way of dealing with the revelation of vampires, Matt pretended that Elena was dead, and that vampires did not exist, shunning Stefan when he tried to speak with him. But after Elena visited him one night, he concluded that vampires must be real, and offered her some of his blood. Elena accepted, and Matt then decided to help her, Stefan, Meredith, Bonnie and Alaric Saltzman save Fell's Church. 
At the Snow Ball, Matt, along with Meredith, Bonnie and Alaric, tried to save Robert E. Lee High School from the town's dogs, who were being controlled by Katarina to attack. They managed to save everybody by hiding behind a fire, with help from Caroline Forbes on the school's speaker-system. Unbeknownst to them, at the same time, Elena died by exposing herself to the Sun, sacrificing her life while killing Katarina and saving the town.
Matt attended Elena's funeral, and punched Tyler after he insulted her memory.
====A new threat====
Six months after Elena's death, Matt, in Bonnie's opinion, seemed depressed, and indifferent to just about everything. He was the only one willing to help Meredith and Bonnie fight against a new supernatural threat in Fell's Church who killed Sue Carson at Meredith's birthday party, which Caroline held. He helped with Bonnie's summoning spell to bring Stefan back to the town, going to the Fell crypt and gathering some of Stefan's hairs that he left after Katarina's attack.
After Stefan and Damon arrived in the town, they learnt that evil was attracted to Fell's Church due to the large amount of bloodshed that occurred in the Battle of Fell's Church, something that Matt knew about.
Soon after, Matt began to doubt their investigation into Sue Carson's death, arguing that there would always be more evil in the world. Stefan, however, tricked him into convincing himself otherwise, and he agreed to go on fighting, breaking into the library to look at Honoria Fell's journal, as Stefan correctly believed that Tyler Smallwood was a werewolf. He then went with Bonnie and Meredith to safeguard Vickie Bennett, who was shaken up by Sue's death. He also became the first to learn that Damon had killed Tanner in self-defence, not as an act of murder.
===Graduation and fighting Klaus===
Confirming that Tyler was a werewolf, Matt and the others formed a plan to capture and interrogate him over the "blond man" that Vickie had mentioned. They ambushed him in the cemetery and threatened to chop off one of his feet before he gave in and told them about Klaus, that there was one type of wood that could injure him, and that he planned on killing Vickie that night. The group quickly departed for Vickie's house, where they found her dead.
In search of the one wood that could harm Klaus, Matt went with Stefan, Meredith and Bonnie to a mental hospital in West Virginia, where Meredith's grandfather, one of Klaus's victims, resided. They learnt that the wood was white ash, and quickly returned to Fell's Church and made a spear out of it. 
Shortly afterwards, Klaus, who had kidnapped Caroline Forbes from Herron, sent the group a message, telling Stefan to face him at the Francher homestead. They refused to let him go without them, but he threatened to kill them if they followed him. Naturally, they followed him in secret.
At the Francher place, a battle ensued between Klaus, who had Tyler Smallwood on his side, and Matt and the group. Tyler gave Matt a concussion and raked Meredith's leg to the bone, but Bonnie managed to knock him unconscious while Damon, who arrived with his own spear, distracted Klaus while they tended to Stefan, who was badly injured. Thankfully, Bonnie summoned Elena's spirit and the ghosts of the Civil War soldiers who died in the town. The soldiers took Klaus to Judgement, while Elena was returned to life.
===Shinichi and Misao's plans===
A week after Elena's rebirth, Stefan allowed Matt, as well as Meredith, Bonnie and Caroline Forbes, to visit her at Theophilia Flowers' boardinghouse. Before heading to the boardinghouse, the four of them signed an oath concerning the secrecy of Elena's return to life. At the house, Elena kissed them in order to identify and remember them. When she kissed Matt, Meredith and Bonnie hurriedly distracted Stefan so that he would think nothing of it. In fact, Matt secretly enjoyed the kiss. 
The following day, as Matt left the boardinghouse in his new car with Bonnie and Meredith, they were attacked by ambulatory trees that poisoned them with their sap. Though Damon arrived, he chose only to save Bonnie, and left Matt and Meredith behind. Fortunately, Stefan went to save them after Damon explained to him why Bonnie was injured and unconscious.
The day after, Matt went to Jim Bryce's house. Arriving there early, he saw Caroline leave, and deduced that she had spent the night with Jim. Before Caroline left, she made a suggestive comment to Matt. Furthermore, Tamra, Jim's younger sister, pressed her body against Matt in the doorway. In the afternoon, Matt, Stefan, Elena, Bonnie and Meredith went to the cemetery for a celebratory picnic. There, he told them about Caroline and Tamra Bryce, and they came to the conclusion that they may be possessed by malach, which later attacked Matt as he made his way home from the boardinghouse. The attack left him with a badly cut arm.
The morning after, Mrs. Flowers, who told the group that she was, in fact, a witch, tended to Matt's wounded arm and the puncture marks on his neck. Sheriff Rich Mossberg called the boardinghouse accusing Matt of removing stop signs. He denied the charges, and later went to the Bryce house to check on Tami with Elena, who was in disguise. They found that Tami had superglued a homemade stripper outfit onto herself, and made sexual overtures to a horrified Matt. He and Elena left by way of the Old Wood, looking for malach and Tree-Men. Instead, they found Damon, who ordered the two of them to have sex while he recorded it on his video camera. Elena tried to co-operate, but Matt objected, so Damon tortured him and left him unconscious in the wood.
Upon awakening, Matt tried to track down Elena, going to the Dunstan house near the woods where he suspected she might have escaped to. In the house, he found that Kristin Dunstan was acting in much the same way as Tamra Bryce had been. He continued into the woods, where he found Meredith, Bonnie, Mrs. Flowers, Dr. Alpert and Isobel Saitou, and headed for the boardinghouse. Arriving there, they were attacked by Tamra Bryce, Kristin Dunstan and Ava Zarinski, and held prisoner by the kitsune twins Shinichi and Misao. They learn that Caroline was working with them.
The kitsune intended to kill each of their prisoners, but Elena arrived in time to save them, just as Misao was about to make Meredith fork her own tongue. Elena negotiated with the kitsune, and they left, only after Shinichi gave them a psychic map leading them to Stefan, who they had imprisoned in the Dark Dimension. 
The following day, Caroline told her family and Sheriff Mossberg that Matt had raped her, when she was actually pregnant with Tyler Smallwood's twins. With no other option, Matt decided to go with Elena and Damon to save Stefan from the Dark Dimension.
===Saving Stefan===
In August, shortly after Elena's eighteenth birthday, Matt split up from Elena and Damon after seeing them apparently getting intimate after they traded in the Ferrari Stefan had bought Elena for two older cars. Matt took one and told them that he would meet them in Sedona. However, he immediately headed back to Fell's Church.
From late July to early August, Matt stayed at the boardinghouse with Mrs. Flowers. They realized that the children of the town were meeting in secret with Shinichi and Misao. Matt guessed that they were meeting in the Old Wood, and went to investigate one night. Unfortunately, Mossberg was waiting for him, but Mat was saved by the timely arrival of Shinichi and the children. After Mossberg saw that his niece, Rebecca, was among them, he followed them, ignoring Matt's protests. When the children returned, Mossberg was no longer with them, and Matt presumed that he was dead.
Matt later visited the Saitou house, where Isobel Saitou's "grandmother" gave him information on kitsune, including the fact that removing a kitsune's tail would weaken it. Before leaving, Orime Saitou wrote Matt some Post-it note amulets to be stuck on demons.
Armed with the amulets, Matt went with Mrs. Flowers and Tyrone Alpert to find Sheriff Mossberg. All they managed to find was a human femur, which caused Matt to faint.
Later that night, Matt and Mrs. Flowers were awoken by a loud noise. They found that Elena, Meredith, Bonnie, Damon and Stefan had returned from the Dark Dimension. Suddenly, a huge illusion of Shinichi's head rose up from the ground and taunted them, saying that they were keeping secrets from each other. Matt and Mrs. Flowers used the Post-it note amulets to protect them and their companions, and the illusion went after Damon shot it with blessed bullets.
==Physical description==
Matt was 5'11All units be on the look out for one Matthew Honeycutt, male Caucasian, five foot eleven inches, blond hair, blue eyes. (The Return: Nightfall Chapter 39), with blonde hair and blue eyesthat Stefan Salvatore described as "honest". He had an athletic build and a tanned complexion that came from his many summers helping out on his grandparents' farm. Due to the limited wealth of the Honeycutt family, Matt often wore old clothes, and had no money to spend on new shoes in 1991.
==Personality and traits==
Matt was fiercely loyal, and was especially mature for his age where relationships were involved. He had faith in the basic goodness of people, as shown by him standing by Stefan despite damning evidence against him, and even managing to work out the reasons for Damon's actions that make him seem far less evil than he would like to believe himself. Additionally, his willingness to accept vampires despite the fact that they caused Elena's death and made her a vampire shows this. In fact, it was not Stefan being a vampire that sent Matt into denial, but the fact that he pretended to feel no remorse for attacking Tyler Smallwood and his friends.
After Elena's second death, Matt's faith in humanity and good versus evil was shaken, and he became depressed and uncharacteristically pessimistic. However, after a renewal of friendship with Stefan and a talk about why they should keep fighting, he began to regain his former determination and good humor.
==Possessions==
*Mr. Honeycutt's Ford Sedan: After Matt's father died, he inherited his old car. Matt added new parts to the car, though he still called it "the Junk Heap". Elena drove it into Drowning Creek in December, 1991, resulting in her death.
*Second car: Following Elena's accident, Matt got a new car, though it was not much better than his father's. He found it incredibly embarrassing seeing it parked next to Stefan's Ferrari.
==Relationships==
===Family===
===Stefan Salvatore===
===Elena Gilbert===
===Bonnie McCullough===
===Meredith Sulez===
===Damon Salvatore===
===Tyler Smallwood===
==Behind the scenes==
*Though in The Fury it is mentioned that Matt's father is deceased, in The Return trilogy, his parents are mentioned. However, it can be assumed that Mrs. Honeycutt remarried.
*Matt Donovan of the was loosely based on Matt Honeycutt. Interestingly, Matt Donovan is friends with Tyler Lockwood (based on Tyler Smallwood) and had a romantic relationship with the TV series' .
==Appearances==
*Matt & Elena: First Date
*Matt & Elena: Tenth Date: On Wickery Pond
*The Awakening 
*The Struggle
*The Fury
*Dark Reunion
*The Return: Nightfall
*The Return: Shadow Souls
*The Return: Midnight
*Evensong: Paradise Lost
*Evensong: The War of Roses
*The Vampire Diaries (video game) 
==Notes and references==
Category:Males
Category:Honeycutt family
Category:Humans
Category:Fell's Church residents
Category:Robert E. Lee High School students
Category:Robert E. Lee High School football team
Category:1990s births
Category:Elena Gilbert's romantic interests
Category:Bonnie McCullough's romantic interests