Prompt: Imagine your OTP in an AU where Person B is a cupid. It comes time for Person A to be set up with their match as they're hanging out together, and Person B is assigned to take the shot. Unfortunately, they're a little too close, and the impact affects Person A just enough to where they slip and fall into a deep body of water/a hole/etc. Their partner can't reach them in time, and Person B has to break the 'Cupid Code' and become visible (minus the wings, of course) long enough to save them. When they pull Person A up out of the hole/water, Person A looks up and immediately falls in love.

Fluffy Version: Person B, even knowing it was technically their fault that Person A is now in love with them, can't help but fall in love as well, and confesses the truth to Person A. They're forgiven, and it becomes a bit of an inside joke as they plan their first date.

Angsty Version: Person B isn't allowed to appear to humans, much less engage in any direct communication with one. They're in big trouble if they don't wipe Person A's memories and redo the shot. Unfortunately, they're in love with Person A. They now have a very tough decision to make: follow the rules and wipe A's memory, or go into hiding.

OT3 Edition: The original partner is Person C.

A/N: Since I like a good mix of comedy, fluff, and angst, I could very well combine all three versions. Pre-warning, I suppose.

Sitting perched amongst the high branches, the Cupid had a clear aerial view of his surroundings when he spotted his bumbling, dear boy William, along with the poor sap's love-to-be. Just as they came within shooting distance, he reached into his quiver and strung his bow, aiming the invisible arrow as he followed in William's tracks.

William had been laughing about something when he slipped on the soggy ground, thus causing the archer's fingers to tense on his bow string and a low and long sigh to follow. The Cupid cleared his throat and continued to track his movements as he watched William clumsily get back up with an embarrassed laugh. That was until he noticed the direction they were heading to be more than precarious. Not ten feet from them was a deep ditch—with the warning sign cast carelessly behind some trees. The cherub's eyes raced back between the looming pit and the chatter of the pair of humans. Rationalising they'd be more aware of their surroundings, he decided it wasn't something for him to worry about. His only job was to shoot people he was assigned to shoot, and at that moment, that person was William.

He took another breath as his eyes followed him, but the other person would inadvertently come between them. With the centuries that came with that job, so came patience. He waited till the precise millisecond for his view to be clear before releasing his arrow. Finally, his job was done. But… where did William go? He had been standing right there—

»»—»

"William! William, are you all right!"

William moaned. He found himself facedown in dirt as he felt an explosion of pain permeate his entire body. "I… I think so," he managed to say. With creepingly slow caution, he pressed his palms into the soft earth and pushed himself up, only to stop immediately when he felt a stabbing pain in his leg. He hissed through clenched teeth. "On second thought, I think I may have broken my leg," he called out as he glanced down at his lower extremities with furrowed brows.

"All right! Hang tight!" There was a lengthy pause. "I can't seem to get a signal from here… I'll need to run back to get an aid and ambulance."

William's eyes widened and he felt an iciness fill his belly.

"I won't be long! Hang tight!"

William snapped his head up to see the shadow of his friend disappear from the crater that hovered above him. "O-okay!" he managed to yell out a little too late. Though what he had really wanted to say was, 'Don't leave me!'

Resigned to his fate, William grimaced as he glanced at the state he was in—mud smothering his trousers, shirt, and possibly filling his knickers and other things that didn't include clothing. He allowed himself to wallow in his misery at that moment, but he was mildly distracted when he noticed shallow ripples flickering across a puddle nearby. The ripples quickly became more broken and agitated, and he soon felt heavy and cold droplets hitting the exposed skin on his hands, then pelting his body. Within a couple of minutes, those fleeting drops of rain had transformed into a menacing flash flood.

With a groan, William heaved himself over onto his back, leaving himself gasping as he forced himself upright and exposed to the downpour that streamed down his face. The water levels had risen at an alarming rate, already leaving his legs submerged and hidden beneath muddy water; it only continued to rise till it licked at his elbows. "Oh, God, please… please come back soon," he muttered.

The cherub should have left right after his arrow had been planted, but things weren't going as he'd imagined. William was supposed to fall hopelessly and haplessly in love, one that was both unfortuitous and unrequited. He watched as the relentless rain continued to assault his helpless and pitiful victim. By the time William's friend would return, the hole would be filled, and William's body would be floating facedown like a dead goldfish.

Letting out another heavy hearted sigh, he slid the strap off his shoulder and tucked his quiver and bow in the crook of the thick branches. "God help me," he muttered as he turned round, rising to his full height. He moved one foot forward, suspending it in midair before he pushed off with his other and fell.

The impact was thunderous, leaving the earth in a tremor and a hush from the leaves from the surrounding trees; mud splattered from every trajectory from his landing, leaving an indentation in the softened and moistened soil almost two feet under.

William gasped as he glanced above him, the water having now reached his shoulders. "H-hello?" he yelled. It had sounded like a tree had fallen and felt like the aftershocks of an earthquake.

Water pooled into the mini crater, leaving two hollow spots untouched and footprint in shape as it swirled around them. As the Cupid stood, his form began to become apparent, shimmering from the image of a ghost into the solid figure of a man dressed in black. He stepped forward and walked towards the hole, finding that the water had now reached William's ears as he glanced down. With a grimace, he knew his next decision would make matters for him much worse.

"Hey!"

William paused momentarily from his anxious sputtering and snapped his head up, only to have his fears instantly washed away. The rhythmic drumming from the rain was muted, the pain in his leg forgotten, the cold in his bones—what bones? All he could see was him—the gorgeous dark haired and dark eyed man. And he was staring down at him with such an intensity, he could have melted.

"I'm going to get you out of there, okay?"

"Ah… 'kay," William responded softly, transfixed.

The Cupid glanced around him for anything he could use as rope but was out of luck. If he wanted the blond to live, he was going to have to find other means than using human solutions. The sound of coughing and wheezing shook him out of his thoughts and he peered down into the hole again to see William craning his neck as the water lapped around his mouth and nose. With furrowed brow and clenched jaw, he let out a hiss of a sigh and jumped down into the ditch just as William dipped below the murky surface. He yanked him up by the collar as he watched him gasp for air.

"W-what are… you doing…?" William managed to utter between fits of coughs. "Now you're stuck here, too!" His eyes were wide and panicstricken.

The Cupid lowered himself and scooped an arm behind William's back and one underneath his hidden legs before rising. "I said I would get you out of here," he said, turning to him with mild annoyance.

William jolted forward and clasped his arms around the stranger's broad shoulders and strong neck as he shivered from the cold—but it was more in response to the man's unexpected and welcome gesture.

"My God, you're strong," he breathed.

"What was that?"

"Erm… how do you propose we get out of here?" William yelled over the drumming rain.

The cherub glanced at the gaping hole above him. "Don't worry about it," he said, returning his gaze to the soaking man-child. His plan was of course to use his very unhuman-like abilities to get them untrapped from their pending watery grave. He hefted the human ragdoll higher in his hold and inadvertently jostled William's injured leg.

William whimpered and clutched at the man tighter.

"Sorry," the cherub whispered hoarsely. Sincere as he was, he kept his focus on the dirt wall as he sludged his way towards it. "Hold tight," he instructed.

William gritted his teeth and nodded.

Keeping his arm supported underneath the human's legs, he reached high with his other and dug his fingers deep into the dirt wall above him. This did nothing as the wet earth gave way and a clump sloughed off in his grip, causing mud to spatter around him.

"Bloody Christ!" William yelped as some was flung into his eyes.

"Oh, whoops!" the Cupid replied, recalling what he'd learnt was the most human response to error was.

Without his hands free, William could only keep his eyes clenched shut. But, this allowed the cherub to continue without his abilities being seen.

He stooped low before shooting up into the air with ease, sailing high over the ditch, and landing a few feet from it on bended knee. Even though he'd absorbed most of the impact, the movement still elicited a hiss from the blinded man.

"Sorry," said the Cupid, helping to wipe the mud from William's face.

William peered through one squinted eye before opening the other. "It's… it's all right. You didn't mean to; you only want to help—" He stopped immediately when he realised they were freed from the pit. "You… you got us out—" a smile broke out across his face, "you bloody did it!" He laughed and shook the handsome stranger by the shoulders as the mysterious male merely stared back at him. "But… how?" he asked after he'd had a moment to calm down, an inquisitive tilt to his head.

"I climbed out," the cherub was met with a slight quirked brow, "really carefully," he added for believable measure.

William's features relaxed as he accepted his answer and nodded. "Of course."

"Come on, let's get you to a hospital."

»»—»

After a lot of hissing and colourful language muttered and screamed by William, as well as looks of longing at his mysterious saviour when the pain was tolerable, he was ushered into the hospital in a timely manner.

The admitting clerk stood abruptly at the sight of the drenched duo. The boots squelched beneath the leather clad man as a visible trail of water followed him from the automatic doors to where he currently stood, cradling the curly haired blond with the misshapen leg, who seemed to have been dipped in a bog.

"We're going to need a wheelchair here!" she yelled out, the phone still plastered to her ear.

One was brought forth almost immediately before she came around the counter with a clipboard.

"What happened?" she asked methodically, her brows terse.

"He broke his leg," the cherub answered.

"No kidding," she muttered as she jotted something down. "You can put him down," she continued, indicating with a brief glance to the empty wheelchair cast to their side.

The Cupid sighed and did as instructed. Before he could stand, William clutched him by the arm.

"Wait—"

"You'll need to fill out these forms before processing…"

"I don't even know who you are." His blue eyes searched his dark ones.

"…and if you don't have insurance…"

"I'm, um," the Cupid lowered his eyes and cleared his throat as he stood, "an angel," he mumbled.

He was stopped as he made an attempt to leave by the clerk who stared at him unflinchingly.

"Do you have any relation to him?"

"No," he replied, his brows still raised as the woman's penetrating and judging eyes seemed to scrutinise him.

"All right, you can leave," she said, stepping past him.

As William was being wheeled away, he glanced behind him to see the mysterious man turn towards the exit.

"I'm William!" he yelled. The man paused to glance at him, and William smiled and let out a soft breath. His smile quickly shrank into a frown as he witnessed him continue on his way out. He swallowed and strained to keep him in his sights as the distance between them grew.

Was he ever going to see him again?

»»—»

The Cupid wasn't concerned so much about disclosing his true nature to the human, because he didn't think he would believe him. And if he did? He would simply erase his memory.

Returning to the site, on the other hand, was a little more complicated. He had left the place deserted, and now a small team of men were combing the area, most undoubtedly for their missing William. When they came up empty, they taped off the ditch that now resembled a wide puddle. The cherub waited till they left the woods, coming out of hiding when the rumble of their engines grew quiet and distant.

After scaling the same oak within a few easy seconds, he found the spot where he had taken to initially before everything had gone sideways. But when he looked into the crook where he'd hidden his bow and quiver, they were gone.

»»—»

"William! William!"

William glanced up from his bed to see his friend dashing through the door.

"We came back, and you weren't there! I thought you were dead!"

William offered a smile as he lay reclined against his pillows. "Not quite, am I? Been through a bit of a wringer, but I'm still breathing. And, I've got a souvenir, to boot," he said, glancing down at his leg. "I'm just waiting on my x-rays, to see whether I'm required for surgery."

His friend covered their mouth at the sight of it. "But… how did you manage to get out of there…?" they asked, prying their eyes away to meet his gaze.

"I was rescued," William said with a smile. "Angel… his name is Angel."

A/N: This was a prompt I came across at the beginning of February, most likely something that should have been for V-Day, but, alas, I was late as usual. I just thought it was a really cute and funny way to start a story. And yeah, even more so with the likes of these two (albeit AU human/angel edition). It should be noted that this is more of the 'William the poet' rather than the 'badass Spike' we're so used to. I just think this vanilla version is incredibly cute and fluffy and perfectly suitable for a situation like this. 'Angel' here is a mix between Angel/us but with less sociopathic tendencies.

I haven't written m/m in a while, but most of my stories include LGBTQA+ characters. (This will be seen in the other stories I have posted, too, specifically in my series, Hellfire and Church Bells.)

Also, I haven't yet determined who William's friend is here, which is why I left them gender neutral (i.e. 'them/they'). It could be a man or woman. I seriously haven't decided who it'll be yet, lol. I guess it'll be a surprise for me as well XD.