A short drabble. Stuck in the mind frame of a child.
Enjoy.

He had been watching on and off for days. He couldn't stop himself when a new target caught his eye. Enthralled. It consumed him completely and whether it was a job that could be done that moment, or one that had to wait a while, he would never forget.

It was a rather large place considering. The restaurant he had finally taken a seat in. For days he had watched from the window or the parking lot, but now things were going better. A solution was close. Coming closer to him and he couldn't hide his grin an anticipation.

When he was finally noticed, sitting at a table by his lonesome, the woman he had been watching approached him hesitantly.

"Are you here with someone, sweetheart?" she asked, genuinely concerned. Her blue eyes were gentle and something about her was striking. With her hair pulled back and a bandana in place over it as she worked, he found her alluring in her own way. She had a skinny frame but she did have full lips and a nice face. There was much love for her to give to someone.

Finally able to see her so close made him smile and even forget to scowl at the fact that his appearance was that of a ten year-old boy.

"I'm sure they are coming." he spoke slowly, announcing every work clearly. "May I please have something to drink?"

Her expression softened even more. At the moment he would have liked nothing more than to reach up at touch her face. "Sure, what would you like?"

"Ice-tea, please." He smiled brightly. Not caring in the least that it was a strange choice for a child. "Make it sweet?"

"Sure." she nodded, even writing it down on her note pad. No doubt she thought it would make him feel special to be treated like an adult. It did. She was a thoughtful woman like that.

He watched her, even if he pretended to be more interested on the things that hung, and decorated the walls. She had a nice walk; he noticed that she wore ankle boots to work in, rather than sneakers like the other waitress'. He gathered she either liked the extra height or they were just comfortable. He was thinking of the latter considering how beat up they were. She also wasn't wearing make-up so he doubted was so sensitive about her height.

She was a good pick this time. He could even see the desire she hid very, very tightly inside of her wishing to be let free.

When she returned with his glass (an adult sized one instead of a child sized one) she sat across from him.

"Is it okay if I keep you company until someone is here with you? She asked, hoping to be invited before she was forced to intrude against his will to make sure he remained safe.

"Please." He smiled sweetly, sipping his tea and purring. It wasn't quite the consistency of syrup, but it was very sweet. He liked it very much. "What's your name." he asked boldly, bluntly.

She laughed a little. "Sophia. How about you?"

He'd known her name already, but now having been told, he felt more like he owned it. Perfect. "My name is Eros, nice to meet you." he said politely.

He watched as recognition of his name crossed her face, but she didn't comment on it. It was nice. He hated hearing about his own history; some people felt the urge to tell him.

"Well, it suits you." Sophia said firmly, nodding in agreement with herself. "But I gotta ask, shouldn't you been in school."

"No." Eros said, giving a very practiced answer. "I go to a school that is in session all year long. So we get lots of random days off."

Sophia blinked and nodded. "Okay then. You're here by yourself?"

"No." he repeated. "My sister is shopping close and I didn't wanna go. I didn't wanna wait in the car so I'm waiting here."

"You know it could be dangerous sitting by yourself. She should be worried..." Sophia muttered. He could see her trying hard not to call his 'sister' a moron for letting him roam about New York on his own.

"I do it all the time." Eros nodded, displaying the aura of a mature child. At any given moment he could be any sort of child he needed to be to suit his goals. From sweet or naive to sheltered or abused . "I know how to be safe. It's why I came in here where there are lots of people."

"Very clever." she practically beaming. Her having pride in a stranger was oddly compelling, but the stranger being a child was probably what sealed it.

Eros smiled sweetly. "Thank you very much. I like to have company." He couldn't help the fact that he watched the pulse in her neck move. It was steady and it amused him that she could be so calm with him sitting across from her. She'd clearly never been deceived by a child before.

"Well." Sophia began, looking around the restaurant to make sure she wasn't needed. The other three waitresses' had everything covered and no one seemed to be complaining about her keeping an eye on the little boy. "I don't mind waiting with you. Are you hungry?"

"No thank you." Eros said politely. "What's your favorite color?"

Sophia's brows rose just before she answered. "Green. Why?"

"What shade of green?"

"Um…moss green."

"Ah, earth tones." Eros mused, sipping from his tea. "It's been a long time since I got that kind of an answer."

"And what does a favorite color tell you?" Sophia asked, looking amused and playing along with whatever his game was.

Eros chuckled and folded his hands on the table. "A lot. Green is growth. Green is renewal and health and balance. Green is also inexperience and jealousy. It depends on the shade and the culture. Green could mean ill or negativity, or permission and organic. Moss green, well that's right there in its name. My guess would be new growth, inexperience and a balance that's being tested."

Sophia has to make a noticeable effort to prevent her jaw from hitting the table. She had younger siblings and cousins, and she's never heard one talk like this boy. A clever child was something to be nurtured but it hit close to home how quickly he could pick out her personality traits with just her favorite color.

"I guess you know what you're talking about, huh? What's your favorite color?" She asked, desperately trying to direct the conversation away from her.

"I appreciate a very large color spectrum." he grinned. Teasing was all good and fun but telling her his ideal colors represented lust and love would have her questioning too much. Boys his age were afraid of nothing more than cooties and found girls to be useless still. "Did you know you're face went all red? Did I embarrass you?"

Sophia laughed nervously, shaking her head back and forth. "Oh no. No. Nothing like that."

"There you are." A woman walked towards the table, her dark hair pulled back into a messy braid and a no nonsense kind of look of her face. She was a lovely sort of woman with her skirt flaring out around her. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"Hi, Natalie. Did you put your shopping bags in the car already?" Eros asked, blinking up at her innocently.

She resisted the urge to scowl at him once she noticed Sophia and tried to remain polite. "Stop bothering this lady. This is not where you said you would be waiting for me." She came forward, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, he was alright." Sophia stood. "I was just making sure he wasn't by himself."

"Thank you." Natalie said honestly, pulling out a few bills to pay for his drink. Bills Sophia wouldn't take.

"I got it for him." She answered smiling at Eros. "It was very nice to meet you."

Eros smiled childishly, feigning bashfulness as she stood and pressed his face against Natalie's side. "Okay…" he mumbled.

"Thank you." Natalie repeated, leaning down towards Eros to glare at him and speak through gritted teeth. "No more games now."

"But the board is half set up." He grinned, reaching up to pat her cheek and annoy her further.

Natalie grabbed him by his wrist, looking like nothing more than a concerned older sister as she began nearly dragging him to the door. Something he found to be utterly hilarious.

"Again?" she hissed softly. "I can't take my eyes of you for a second. You're supposed to be an adult."

"Ah, but I'm not, am I?" he smirked wide. So what he if was being punished?

"No, you're a boy Cupid."

He scowled instantly.

As Natalie pulled him through the threshold, a group of men wandered in, one of which had caught all of Eros' attention. His body went stiff just before a grin broke out on his face. He could practically feel the darts that rest in his pockets become heavy from nonuse.

"Yes." He smirked, turning to head back inside. "No time like the present."

"No." Natalie said, her grip on his wrist tightening as she dragged him down the street. "Do you even get how much trouble you're still in? It's only been two of your fifteen year sentence. They still remember what you did! They're still talking about it!"

"Let go!" Eros demanded, struggling against her hold. "No Natalie! You're ruining it!"

"Quiet, Cupid." She mocked.

"Don't call me that!" Of all the horrible names…

Eros fought so much that she was forced to wrap an arm around his waist and haul him up under her arm. "Brat!" she yelled back. Sliding down the first alleyway she could find where they could disappear without drawing more attention from the people around them. They landed in the condo that had been there home for the last for months and she sighed tiredly.

"You can't keep doing this Eros. You are in the proverbial time out!" Natalie yelled, releasing him. When Aphrodite was forced to scold her son for his misdeeds, he found himself in the form of a child. A form he would be close with for his fifteen year sentence. He could scoff at that. Fifteen years were nothing! But being a child meant he needed a caretaker, so three nymphs were summoned to look after him and pose as his guardians when the occasion called for it.

"But I want them to be in love!" Eros screamed back at her. "I know what I'm doing!"

"Ha! You should have thought of that before you tried to undermine the fates!" Natalie scolded.

Eros scowled. "Those bitches deserve what they get! I was trying to make them happy anyway! They wouldn't be such pains in our ass' if they would only get laid!" he stomped angrily, making his way back to the door that slammed in his face before he was able to go through it.

"Natalie! Let me out! I will have to hunt that man down if I don't leave right now! He's perfect for Sophia!" Eros glowered at her. Of his three Nymph caretakers, she was the most impossible. Good mother material, bad very old god babysitter.

"You should have thought about that before. Don't pretend you're so helpless, Cupid." Natalie sighed again, turning away from him.

Fine. "I want them to be in love!" Eros screamed stomping his feet again and ensuring that every other condo around them was getting an earful. "Why do you have to be like this?! Why! Why do you always get in the way! Let me do my job! Let me be who I am and stop calling me that stupid name! I hate it! I hate you!"

The glass tabletop shattered under just the weight of his voice and when actually tears started for form, the entire condominium felt as if it was shaking.

"I. Want. Them. Together!" He yelled each word, punctuation it with a shake of his fist. "Stop telling me no! Don't tell me no!"

"Damn it Eros!" Natalie growled, appeared behind him and slamming the side of her hand into the back of his neck so quickly that his crying instantly stopped and he was thrown face first into the floor. "Just because you're a kid doesn't mean you have to act like one!"

Natalie turned and walked out, slamming the door behind her. For the moment, he was still stuck inside but he'd yet to move. With his face buried against the carpet he sighed. He still felt wronged and betrayed. He was sealed off from his true form, but not even another god could take his powers away. They had to deal with him, and the world needed him anyway. He was a figure head in several cultures.

He wanted his legend to live where others had faded away. Love at first sight was eternal.

They were jealous. Damn Fates and their whining.

Eros laid flat on his stomach, eyes closed. Everyone seemed to have such a need to make life harder than what it needed to be. So what if he played match maker? So what if it wasn't always for the noblest reasons? He was taking miserable people and making them happier even if it was only for a little while.

He didn't turn his head until he felt the fingers stroking through his hair. When he looked up he was meet with golden hair and hazel eyes that made his own heart feel like it would bust.

"Psyche." He rolled over onto his back and she cleaned his face with her sleeve. She too, looked like a ten year old girl. She'd volunteered to share his sentence and it was the only thing that would have him behaving a little more in the future.

"You threw another tantrum." She smiled a little, not so much in an approving manner as an understanding one.

Eros pouted, moving enough that his head rested on her lap. "They think me a child, I should get to act like one." His eyes closed again when he felt her fingers return to his hair. No matter their size or surroundings, their feelings were always the same and in full bloom. They were love personified.

"That won't help the woman will it?" Psyche smiled knowingly. "There's still time."

"It will be hard to find that man again without meddling. If I do that they'll catch me in the act for sure." Eros grumbled.

Psyche nodded. "So you must do it before he leaves. I will go bother Natalie and Dana will let you out."

Eros sat up quickly, blinking away all traces that he had overreacted minutes before. "I think perhaps my dearest love, that I have had a bad influence on you."

She smiled brightly, looking every bit like the princess she once was, and still was to him. She leaned forward to kiss his cheek before getting to her feet again. "Come back before Natalie notices, okay?"

"Promise." Eros sighed wistfully, watching her walk out again. He would absolutely need to think of a thank you gift to offer to his beloved. She was there for him throughout everything and more than once stood by his side.

He waited a few minutes, but she didn't returned and before he could seek her out he felt an opening that Dana had created for him, and by the next instant, he was gone.

The darts in his pocket pulsed with his own eagerness and he took that to mean one thing, the man was still inside. He pulled out the small case from his pocket and took out two small, needle like darts. He could have carried his bow and arrows still if he wished to but the others who were seeing to it that he was punished would know if he used it.

Instead he moved soundlessly into the restaurant, this time being neither seen nor heard. The man was sitting far away from the tables Sophia was working on. That would not do. They wouldn't have a reason to ever gaze at one another.

The man sat a table with his friends, carrying on about something Eros had very little interest in. He nonchalantly tipped over a glass of soda into the man's lap and smirked when he jumped up, cursing and grabbing napkins to clean the mess while his friends merely laughed and watched the free entertainment.

"You're an ass…" the man chuckled, looking down at his soaked shirt and lap. He got up to find the bathroom in a small attempt to salvage his clothes.

"I'm giving you a gift, Malcolm." Eros said as he walked at the man's side. His voice still went unheard but the prayer was said. "Do not take it for granted. Have eyes only for one." He waited until Sophia walked past them to raise the dart and stick the man in the side.

He literally jumped from the prick and cussed silently again before looking at Sophia and watching her as she moved back into the kitchen.

"Feel it down to your bones." Eros said smugly.

Malcolm was frozen still, only taking a step or two closer to the kitchen before realization hit that he couldn't just go back there.

"Sophia! Sophia!" Eros yelled, laughing happily when she came back out at when she heard her name and seeing no one from which the call could have come from.

When she noticed Malcolm so close and staring she gasped. "Oh my God." She rushed forward, pulling the towel out of her apron. "Here, please let me help you. I'm sure we must have something to get the stains out."

For the moment Malcolm remained tongue tied, his eyes to busy going over every inch of her.

"I wish you much happiness." Eros grinned, pulling out his second dart and stabbing Sophia's hip. She made and audible yip and jumped worse when Malcolm reached out slowly to take her hand that still held the towel she offered him.

They blinked stupidly at one another for a moment before Sophia was the first to blush brightly.

"Good luck." Eros said, still laughing good-naturedly as he walked away from the new couple that were only just starting to exchange a few words. He already planned to return in a few weeks and see how they'd progressed. He couldn't stop a grin and the thought that he would bring Psyche with him.

With that in mind he wasted no time to return home. If he was lucky, Natalie wouldn't ever find out. It meant he got to pout and whine around her for being such a tyrant and she got to think she was doing her job. He couldn't stop his laughter.

End.

Thanks for reading.

And to you, my dear friend, sign out of my account next time you go to review me. XD What is this, like the third time?