A Guardians of Childhood/Rise of the Guardians Fanfic
By Sakura Martinez

Author's Notes:
Another random one-shot I wrote and first published on my Tumblr account (sakuramartinezfanfics). This one features two of my OC spirits: Eros Sureshot (aka 'Cupid') and Psyche. I'm not sure how good this is compared to my previous works, but I do hope I manage to entertain y'all with this.

Again, favorites, reviews, follow, and any form of feedback (here or at Tumblr) is greatly appreciated. Enjoy. :)

Disclaimer:
I do not own the Rise of the Guardians/Guardians of Childhood franchise. Just thought I'd let that out. :D

"Cupid's Arrow" by Sakura Martinez
First Published on Tumblr

Eros Sureshot has, as his name suggest, never missed a target his entire life. If he seen and wanted two people to end up together, his arrows would do the trick. And it always worked, regardless if it were humans he was aiming at or the other spirits that inhabit the planet. He was Cupid. And Cupid always gets the work done.

Always, getting two people to fall in love was a piece of cake for him. It was as easy as pie. Of course, he does love a bit of drama and adds hardships for them along the way. Just a bit of flavor. Nothing harmless. Although, there were instances were he went over the top or free will kicked in. But those were not entirely his fault.

Ah, that was the good life. The easy life. The fun life.

And then…and then he met Jack Frost.

He didn't really found any fault with Jack Frost. Well, not to the point that he hated the Winter Spirit, at least. After all, whenever he was in town turning a cold day into a snow day, it made things easier for the Spirit of Love and Desire. He didn't have to do much to make people cuddle. And snow also has a way of setting up a romantic mood. In truth, Eros had always thought Jack might be a romantic himself. That was the whole deal why he thought it would be a good idea to give Jack some sort of reward—a thank you of sorts. And since Eros only knows of one kind of reward, well…he figured the Winter Spirit would appreciate it. After all, he had been alone for so long.

Eros had been excited. He had his bow and arrow aimed at Jack Frost as the Winter Spirit was playing with the Sandman's Dreamsands. He was unaware. It was the perfect and opportune moment. Not to mention that a female spirit was close by.

Eros smiled. He felt triumphant even before he let his arrow lose. It hit, as it always does.

He waited for that spark; for Jack Frost eyes to be sparkle. He waited and waited. But all he saw was Jack laughing—like he always does—while he raced after the Dreamsands that were making its way to the houses and the children that lived within them.

Eros was at a lost at what just happened. Did he forgot to put a spell on the arrow? Why was there no connection? Why did his arrow fail to work on Jack Frost? In the end, the Spirit of Love and Desire concluded that spell's does was just not strong enough.

'He had been alone for so long, his heart must have forgotten.' was his explanation. 'Next time, it will work!'

And a second opportunity did present itself. Followed by a third, fourth, fifth, sixth…and so on. In all of those events when Eros had aimed at Jack Frost and let his arrow fly, the effects that they were supposed to have were non-existent. Always, Jack would continue on with whatever he was doing as if he hadn't just been shot with Cupid's Arrow. It was frustrating. Maddening. It was…

"What in the gods' name is wrong with that guy?" Eros had barked on the twentieth time of his failed attempt to get Jack Frost to fall in love. "I had upped my game, again and again…yet he remains as he is! This is getting ridiculous!"

"Ready to give up, Eros?" Psyche, a spirit whom Eros was very close with, surprised the Spirit of Love and Desire, suddenly appearing next to him.

"Giving up is not in my vocabulary," Eros replied, then added a question of his own. "What are you doing, Psyche? Shouldn't you be running around spreading contentment and bliss?"

"And shouldn't you be spreading love around and not just focusing on one stubborn spirit?" Psyche retorted, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you even so insistent on forcing Jack Frost to fall in love?"

"I am not 'forcing' him," The Spirit of Love and Desire rolled his eyes. "You know I can't do something like that."

"Alright then, why are you so obsessed with Frost?"

"I am not obsessed either."

"Really? Tell me, sweetie, when was the last time you hounded on someone, wasting twenty well-crafted arrows on them?"

Psyche had him there. Jack was the first. He was the only one that required him to go through such lengths. Frost was also the only one that got him thinking on strategy and ways to be even more cunning. And even then it wasn't enough. He was still missing something.

"Don't you think it's time to just let Jack Frost be, Eros?" Psyche tried one last time. "Maybe this isn't the right time for your arrows to work? Maybe that's the reason why they don't?"

The Spirit of Contentment and Bliss sighed when she realized Eros was no longer listening to her. For someone who spreads love around, he lacked an important aspect to making a relationship work and love to last: communication skills. He wasn't good at listening to others.

"Fine," Psyche huffed, seeing as she was not going to get anywhere with Eros. "Do whatever you want, Eros. Just don't go using all your firepower at once on him."

Psyche's words sparked an idea on Eros' head. It was a brilliant idea—at least, he thought it was.

'Jack Frost wouldn't know what hit him,' he thought to himself with glee as he hurried on back to his home. 'There is no way this wouldn't work!'

Eros didn't show himself for a couple of months as he spent his time tinkering with his new toys. He had to be extremely careful with them and had to test them several times to make sure they do work. Despite all the trouble and annoyance Jack Frost had brought him, he didn't want to accidentally end up hurting the spirit. Well, too much. He did want to strangle him for all the trouble he had unknowingly caused.

The Spirit of Love and Desire did not waste any time searching for Jack Frost. He had his bow slung on his back, along with a quiver of his best arrows. But in his hand was his latest weaponry.

The other spirits who caught sight of Eros did a double take when they saw what he was holding. Some of them even ended up wide-eyed and slack-jawed. After all, it wasn't every day they saw him carrying such a thing.

It took days for Eros to finally track the 500-year-old spirit. When he finally found Jack in Russia, spreading snow, mischief, and fun around, the Spirit of Love and Desire couldn't help but grin.

"Watch out, Jack Frost," Eros muttered to himself as he prepped himself up for the task at hand. "Cupid's got himself a shotgun."

He cocked the firearm in his hand and ran the plan in his head. He would have to be close enough to make sure Jack get the full impact. He would also have to be quick in his escape. As the Spirit of Love and Desire, he wasn't supposed to be seen when doing his work. It was against the rules. Then again, everything he has been doing since deciding on hitting Jack with his arrows had been against the rules.

Eros took a deep breath before he rushed over to Jack Frost and in a flurry of quick movements pressed the shotgun on his chest and fired.

He didn't bother to look back as he quickly scrambled away. As he was running as far away as he could, Eros took note of the fact that his shotgun had failed to do its work. The bullets he had doused with his spell had been as useful as his arrows against Jack Frost.

As he jettisoned upwards, afraid of being frozen to death by the young man who could control the weather, all Eros heard was Jack muttering a curse under his breath about crazy spirits and reasons why he didn't like to be around them.

The hours that followed had Eros trying one thing after another. From a shotgun to dual pistols. From dual pistols to a Magnum Handgun. From a Magnum to a Gloc, Assault Riffle, and finally a Sniper Riffle. All the bullets had been doused to the tip with his spell, which had increased potency. Yet, none of them worked. It was strange. Bizarre. Completely and utterly ridiculous.

"What kind of heart does that Winter Spirit have?" Eros sputtered as he slumped in his workbench. He had exhausted every method he had known, completely ran dry of ammunition for his guns, and the ingredients for his spells was also almost out. Hundreds of thousands of years of doing an outstanding job as the Spirit of Love and Desire seemed to have come crashing down just because of one spirit. And a newbie at that. "He isn't even a thousand years old!"

He was really considering giving up on the Winter Spirit. Psyche's words echoed in his mind. He didn't want to admit that she was right and he had been focusing way too much on Jack.

He certainly didn't want to know what had become of the world while he was so focused on him. Although the Man in the Moon wasn't controlling of how the spirits of Earth acted, Eros could imagine the disapproval at having lost sight of his task.

But he knew that he had to move on. The world needed love and desire, and he was the only spirit who can give them that. Another sigh escaped his lips as he refilled the arrows in his quiver before flying off to spread love to the world.

Of course, one could imagine the Spirit of Love and Desire's surprise when he found the world covered in the darkness of the Nightmare King. He wondered just how he could have been so focused that he would miss something huge like Pitch Black and his Nightmares taking over.

As he flew around the world, he found no signs of the other spirits. They were all in hiding. Even Psyche who was never one to take a sick day…or a vacation. Briefly, Eros wondered if he was partly to blame for the rise of the Nightmare King. If he had been working properly, as he should have, then the world would have been filled with love, making it hard for Pitch to take over.

'Don't be silly,' he shook the thought.

As he circled the globe, he saw the extent of Pitch's hold. Everything was just so dark. Gloomy. It wasn't just the children the Nightmare King had begun to affect. It was also the adults.

He was just about to follow the example of the other spirits—wait for the battle between the Man in the Moon's Guardians and the Nightmare King's army to pass—when he came across the small town of Burgess.

There was nothing really worth noting in that small, boring town. At least, that was Eros' first assessment before he saw the familiar silver of Jack Frost's hair inside one of the houses.

The Spirit of Love and Desire frowned.

'What's he doing there?' he wondered.

And then he noticed something else. Jack Frost—the loner, the one who did not like to have anyone around—was with someone.

And it wasn't just anyone. It was the Queen of the Toothfairies, herself, Queen Toothiana.

The corners of Eros' lips tugged into a smile. Momentarily, he forgot about Pitch and the crisis Earth was facing. "Well, well…this looks interesting."

Eros perched himself on a tree branch close enough to snoop but far enough that he would not get caught. He had never seen Jack Frost interact with any other spirit without a prank involved, or without the grumpiness that only seemed to dissipate when he was around children.

It intrigued him that the Queen of the Toothfairies would be able to get Frost to thaw a little bit; to show something other than genuine annoyance and the genuine need to push others away. Seeing the Winter Spirit's face and hearing his tone of voice suggested that he wasn't just humoring the Queen, either. There was something there. There was a spark.

The small smile that had crept up Eros' face turned into a huge grin. He wasn't going to force Jack to fall in love. He had accepted that Jack was too stubborn to be forced into anything. He was just going to give him a bit of a nudge. A little gentle push. He was going to try one last time.

Instead of taking the arrow with the most potent and most powerful spell, Eros took the one with the least. He nocked the arrow to his bow, aimed, and fired.

It has been a long time since then. Jack Frost was no longer just some Winter Spirit. He was now one of the Guardians of Childhood. He had also shed his lone wolf attitude.

But the thing about Jack Frost that made Eros burst out smiling every time their paths crossed was just how much love the Guardian of Mischief and Fun had. Because Jack Frost really had a big heart so full of love and kindness that was simply hidden. And that it wasn't just reserved for the children of the world that he always held dear to him.

It simply took a Queen to let everyone see that.

A Queen and a little bit of a nudge from Cupid.