Disclaimer: This story is based on the play "Cupid and Psyche" by Joseph Fischer. I took the story line and replaced the characters with ones from kingdom hearts. I don't own the play or any of the KH characters that I used. You do not need to read the play to understand the story, although it's kind of a different read if you have read the play. But whatever. Just enjoy. :)

*Scene shift:

The young man walked calmly over the vast floor of nothing. Lacking in walls or ceilings or floors, the only thing that existed was darkness freckled sporadically by the stars. He continued forward, not walking to anything in particular: just glad to have a moment alone; no thoughts or words zooming every which way through his head. This simple quiet, which he was able to experience so infrequently, was what he treasured above almost everything else: this is practically what he lived for. In this vast area of space through which he walked he did not have to think about anything. Indeed, he made an effort to not think about anything but what was around him.

The young man looked at the stars, his only company for the moment. A small part of him wished that they would leave him as well so that he may be even more fully alone, if even for one minute. He vaguely wondered if he could shoot the things out of the sky one by one. Allowing himself to entertain the idea, he pulled the bow that he had brought with him from its place around his shoulder and from the quiver attached to his back, he drew one golden tipped arrow. With perfect aim, he shot the arrow directly at one of the stars in the distance. The arrow travelled perfectly straight as he watched it fly until it was out of his sight. A moment passed where nothing happened and then a magnificent shower of sparks began to rain down in a gigantic firework, the epicenter where the star used to be.

He chuckled wryly to himself. He began to turn so as to begin to find his way back home, but as he did so, he began to notice that all of the stars were flickering out one by one. As the debris from the destroyed star fell and faded so too did the rest of the stars in the sky. Quickly, the entire sky turned to absolute black, making him no more than a silhouette only outlined but the different shades of darkness. As he turned back again to continue on his way, he was stopped by the sight of another silhouette standing directly in his path. He took the figure in for a moment, unable to see a face, and, after a while, finally spoke.

"Why the darkness?" asked Riku.

"The darkness will stay," answered the figure.

"Why?"

"It shall stay."

"Am I not to ask questions?"

"Not until I say that you may."

This caught Riku off guard for a moment. He raised an eyebrow at the figure, and continued playing its game.

"You just answered that one," said Riku, quizzically. "How could one more hurt?"

"One more? That's all there is?"

"There are one million. What is life but questions?"

"Answers. From time to time."

"Beautiful … but I don't believe you for a second."

Riku was now honestly intrigued. He did not know who this figure was; if they were god or man, or if they existed only in this place that seemed a grey area between his mind and the rest of the universe…

The figure raised its head toward the black sky, reaching out above it as if to grasp the stars that were not there. "Quiet your mind and turn your vision inward. You'll find me there. Shrouded as I am now…."

Riku watched closely, fixated on the arm reaching for the darkness. Faintly, he began to hear a ringing as the stars began dotting the sky once more, the figure fading as the light grew. When the stars had been returned to their original state, the figure had faded and disappeared entirely. After a moment, Riku looked around for the source of the electronic sound, realizing that it was coming from his pocket. With a groan he pulled out his cell phone and held it to his ear, "hello?"

"WHERE ARE YOU?" boomed the voice on the other line. Riku quickly pulled the phone away from his ear for fear of losing his hearing and shut it quickly. Exasperatedly, he began to trudge in the direction of home, shoulders slumped.

*Scene shift:

In the palace of the god Aphrodite (Yes, god, not goddess. And may anyone who attempts to argue this be cursed to loneliness for all their lives) a servant was running as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran down a long, flourishing hallway, desperately trying to escape the thing that followed him. He heard angry yelling though, truth be told, he was not really paying attention to the words being yelled (seeing as he was more focused on running than anything else.) However, he could guess the gist of what the figure chasing him was saying. The small part of his brain that was not focused on running noticed that his master had gotten angry over things such as this before. To have the title of Aphrodite, god of love, meant to deal in all things related to love and desire. And with love and desire came quite a bit of stupidity.

The servant skidded as he rounded a corner, narrowly dodging the vase, still full of flowers, that had been thrown rather powerfully at what he could only assume was supposed to have been his head. Sighing slightly, the servant realized that if he were to make it out of this encounter alive, he would probably be asked to clean that up. As this thought crossed his mind, the servant realized that, in all actuality, he didn't particularly care if he lived or not (200 years of indentured servitude tend to make a person rather apathetic) but if he was going to be killed, he refused to let it be at the hand of a crazed God and a vase full of roses when he wasn't even armed. He wanted to at least put up a fight.

The servant threw open the doors of the dining hall and catapulted himself through, a small portrait narrowly missing his shoulder as he flew into the room. He turned forward, sprinting for the kitchens, when he noticed a familiar head of silver hair standing on the far side of the room. He stopped running at once, sliding on the marble floor until he stopped just in front of the person.

"Young… master Riku," the servant panted out.

"Axel?" Riku raised an eyebrow in question, a picture of ease leaning nonchalantly against the wall. "What's going on?"

Axel attempted to catch his breath. "It's … your-"

At that moment the double doors through which Axel had come burst open with such force that they flew off their hinges and left dents and scratches on the marble walls. Great, Axel thought to himself. If I live, I'm going to have to clean that up too.

"AXELLLL!" Marluxia's eyes were trained directly on the redhead as he marched forward, his intentions clearly murderous.

"Umm, Master Riku," said Axel, glancing sideways at Riku as they watched Marluxia approach them quickly. "Not that I'm particularly afraid to die… I mean I only really ran out of instinct and fear of torture… but, uhh, do you want to save me or something?"

Rolling his eyes, Riku stepped forward into Marluxia's line of vision. "Father," Riku spoke in a dry tone.

Finally noticing his son, Marluxia stopped short. "Riku!" he exclaimed, his demeanor instantly changing from that of a wolverine to that of a papillon.

Marluxia stopped in front of his son and clasped him firmly on the shoulder. "Riku. My son. My protégé. Where have you been all day?"

"In the farthest reaches of the galaxy where I might not hear your voice."

"Ah, but you know that there is no place so far," said Marluxia with a low chuckle.

Riku sighed. "So it seems. Why did you call me here, father?"

"Oh come now," Marluxia said sardonically. "Is this any way to greet your father? No exchange of greetings? No casual banter? Where is the love? My son, you are Cupid: God of love and desire. And yet you show no love to even your own father?"

"Titles don't make the person," Riku countered. "Haven't you always said that, Aphrodite?"

Marluxia, in one of his trademark deadly mood swings, gave Riku a look that made even Axel cringe a little. Riku, however, was not affected and just stared his father down as he asked again, "Father, what on earth did you call me here for? On the phone you seemed like you were in a hurry."

Marluxia took a moment to ease out of his death glare and finally said, "Yes. Well, I was about to do this myself, but since you're here, I'll let you do the honors. I want you to kill Axel."

Behind him, Riku heard a low and very annoyed, "You have got to be kidding me." Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the both of them, Riku asked his father, "Kill him?"

"If you please," said Marluxia, somewhat wryly. "But make sure it's not too painful. He has been somewhat useful over the years."

"Well, if it won't hurt," Riku turned to see Axel, standing with his arms crossed, looking surprisingly calm for the current situation. "Then go ahead. Working for you has got to be worse than any hell that would await me."

"Hm. Confident words from someone who was running for his life a few seconds ago," Marluxia sneered.

"I stopped caring since then." Axel shifted his weight, looking away from Marluxia.

"This is ridiculous," Riku interjected. "Father, why do want me to kill Axel in the first place?"

"He has insulted me in an unforgivable way," said Marluxia dramatically. "He has undermined my authority as a god and disgraced everything I stand for."

Riku turned to Axel, one eyebrow raised. "Well, did you?"

Axel sighed. "Well, not in so many words … I tried to pay him a compliment."

Riku turned back to his father, his stare deadpanning more and more by the second. "…Father?"

Marluxia squared his shoulders defensively. "It was the use of one word in particular. One word to insult every aspect of myself."

Riku's and Axel's expressions were almost matching at this point. "Axel," Riku was almost afraid to ask. "What exactly did you say?"

"I walked into your father's office to serve him tea and I said, 'You seem to be in good spirits. Your hair is particularly pink today.'"

"PINK!" Marluxia shouted with more disgust than anyone has ever had for a color. "PINK! The most unmanly color in all of existence!"

"But father," Riku said exasperatedly. "Your hair is actually – "

"IT'S FREAKING ROUGE, DAMMIT!" Marluxia yelled; arms in the air and face turned toward the sky as if he intended the whole universe to hear his hair's proper color.

Marluxia's voice echoed though the hall as Riku brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Father, I understand you have a bit of a complex about your manliness … but seriously? You call me all the way back here for this?"

"They all mistake me for a woman!" continued Marluxia in an angry rant. "It's ridiculous. Damn to the depths of Hades whoever made that first typo as Goddess Aphrodite. Just because of the hair!"

"I'd be willing to bet that the flowers are a factor too," remarked Axel, not really helping his own situation.

"CAN A MAN NOT ENJOY GARDENING!" Marluxia yelled to no one in particular, his voice again resounding through the dining hall.

"Father," Riku sighed, "This is the stupidest thing you have ever asked me to do. If this is really the only reason why you called me here today, then I'm leaving." Riku turned on heel and began to walk toward the door.

"Wait, Riku!" Marluxia called, suddenly calm again, to his son. "I need your help."

"In so many ways …." Riku turned slowly, feeling the beginnings of a migraine. "But what am I here for?"

"Psyche," said Marluxia darkly.

Riku paused for a moment, pulled up short by his father's expression. Marluxia was known throughout Olympus for what could technically be classified as manic depressive behavior; it was even expected amongst the servants, but that did not make his bad moods any less scary.

Nevertheless Riku kept a calm façade as he faced his father again and asked, "What on earth is a Psyche?"

"Psyche is a young human. A prince of a small kingdom on a small archipelago known as Destiny Islands. His people adore him. So much so that they have left my temples to go worship him instead! And it's not just the islands. Word of him is spreading and people are flocking from all over. The entire world is slowly forgetting about me. If a god is not needed anymore, he dies! You don't want your poor, dear father to die, do you, Riku?"

"Personally," Axel interjected, "I think it might be a benefit to all if that were to happen."

"Do you really think it wise to be speaking right now?" asked Marluxia quietly, shooting Axel a look that effectively shut him up.

"I'm not an assassin," said Riku, ignoring the death glare that was being beamed rather powerfully in Axel's direction. "Why would you have me kill this prince?"

"Oh you're not going to kill him." Marluxia looked at his son again, switching right back into scheming mode (Axel's shoulders visibly relaxed when Marluxia took his eyes off of him). "That wouldn't make me look good at all. I'd come across as vengeful. No, the people have to willingly come back to me."

"And how am I supposed to accomplish this?" Riku was beginning to get the feeling that his father would not get over this very easily.

"It's simple, really," said Marluxia. "Rather than kill him, you must make him fall in love."

"Love?" Axel asked, easing back into his typical informality. "Wouldn't that be more of a blessing?"

"Not in every case," countered Riku darkly. He was beginning to see the line of his father's logic.

"Exactly," smirked Marluxia. "Don't make him fall in love with just anyone. No. Make him fall in love with the most repulsive candidate possible. Have him fall in love with the most hideous girl on the planet."

"If people really love him as much as you say they do," sighed Riku, " then even if I fate him to an ugly girl, the rest of them would only fight more violently for his affections. They'd probably have the poor girl murdered just for another chance at him."

"Then fate him to something even more ridiculous than an ugly girl!" It was becoming increasingly apparent at this point that Marluxia was very determined to ruin this prince. "Make him fall in love with an animal… yes, like cow or… or a plant! Or- NO! A wall."

"A wall?" Riku stared at his father incredulously, attempting to convince himself that Marluxia had not just said that.

"The entire population will be disgusted and confused!" Marluxia was grinning evilly. "They won't just leave him, they'll shuffle away awkwardly. Who knows, the entire kingdom may crumble because of this!"

Feeling that his father felt a bit too happy about this possibility, Riku pointed out, "What happened to not being vengeful, father? You're the god of love, not the god of Chaos."

"With love, my son, comes a considerable amount of chaos."

It took Riku a moment to process the fact that his father was actually serious about this. Becoming quickly exasperated, Riku said, "Okay, you know what I said earlier about killing Axel being the stupidest thing you've ever asked me to do? Yeah, forget that. This is the stupidest thing you have ever asked me to do!"

"It's extreme enough to actually work and I need you to pull it off for me." Riku sighed upon hearing those words. Marluxia had this fun little habit of not actually asking when he needed something done. He simply told others that he needed it done and it was to be assumed that they were expected to do it. This was a trait of his father's that Riku had, though reluctantly, learned to live with over the years.

Riku ran a hand through his hair in frustration. It was apparent that Marluxia would not let this one go until Riku did as he asked. Not seeing any point in attempting further refusal, Riku said, "Let it be known that I only do this out of boredom."

"Excellent," said Marluxia, still smirking evilly.

"But I need to take Axel with me."

"What? Why?"

"You were about to kill him anyway, right?" said Riku. "I might need some help for this one. You two hate each other anyway."

"True," said Marluxia. "Very well, you can have him."

"Good. In that case, Axel," Riku turned to the redhead, who looked just as apathetic as ever. "Go send some scouts to scope out Destiny Islands. I want some information about this kingdom and its royal family."

"Sure, whatever." Axel stuffed his hands into his pockets and ambled out of the dining hall. As he walked past the giant hole in the wall where the double doors used to be, he called over his shoulder, "By the way, I am not cleaning this up!"

Riku rolled his eyes again as he turned to walk away from his father. "Father, sometimes I worry about you."

"Oh, I'd save the worry for yourself, my son." Riku heard, but did not turn as he walked out of the hall, leaving his father to stare after him.

Author's note:

If you're wondering about the "*scene shift" thing it's because I WANTED to put a line break or something in the story to show that the scene was shifting, but whenever I tried, it wouldn't SAVE! it would just erase it whenever I put a bunch of dashes in there. stuff like "!#$%^&*()*&^%$#!" worked just fine, but it looks dumb. D: Whatever. Please rate and review. :)