A/N: Here's chapter two!
In all the time Haruhi was staring at the crumpled and winged body before her, it never once occurred to her that this would rather suspicious to anyone passing by on foot. To them, it would probably look like she was standing over the body of some Cupid messenger boy who came to people's doors and performed sing telegrams.
'Maybe she got dumped and didn't take it well,' they'd say.
Once this possibility was clear to her, Haruhi's head snapped in all different directions, searching for anyone within a far enough radius to see what was going on. Finding nothing, Haruhi forced her eyes back on the man, now wondering just what she was supposed to do next.
'I can't bring him inside,' she told herself first thing. 'What if he's a murderer or a robber… who fell from the sky… he could have been scaling the roof! That makes sense. Maybe I should call the police.'
The body jerked.
Haruhi gasped and stumbled back as the strange man emitted a low groan and his arms began to grab at the air. With his single stunned witness watching, the man found his grip on the doorframe and used it as leverage to get back on his feet. The enormous wings moved with him, like the muscular appendages they were. They folded over, easily hidden from view if one stood directly in front of the man as Haruhi was. He looked perfectly normal now, if disheveled and soaking wet. His eyes widened, but saw nothing. He grunted again and rubbed at his hair, droplets of water flying everywhere.
"That was a bad fall," he muttered, stretching out his shoulders experimentally.
Haruhi didn't know what to do next. She looked down, noting that he was completely outside the doorway, while her earlier shock had sent her sprawling to the carpeted floor of the apartment. Really, all she needed to do was shut the door in his face and lock it tight, then go call the police like she'd originally planned. Sure, he'd have long since ran away by the time they arrived, but at least she'd be able to give a thorough description of him.
But how on Earth would she explain those wings?
Haruhi was still trying to figure that one out when the man finished his inspection of his psychical being and finally spotted her. He froze on the spot, one hand hovering in mid-air over the back of his neck.
The two stared at each other, unmoving and silent. It was hard to tell which one looked more scared of the other, but in the end, it was the man who was able to break out the stupor first and spring into action. Before Haruhi could scream, he was upon her. A hard, calloused hand shoved under her nose, keeping her protests muffled and unintelligible. Cursing under his breath, the man pulled the petite teenager to her feet and entered the apartment, kicking the door shut behind him.
Frantic eyes searched the perimeter, as if expecting to find a camera or some kind of hidden recording device. At least, that's what Haruhi imagined in between the horrors of what this taller than her, stronger than her, winged man could do now that he had her all alone and at his mercy.
"Okay," he said through oddly ragged breath. "Okay. Okay. Now listen up."
Haruhi tensed. That last part was directed at her, if his hard gaze over her shoulder and severe tone were any indication.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I promise, I will not harm you in any way. Now I'll let you go; all I ask is that you please. Don't. Scream."
Sweat was pooling on Haruhi's brow, and the voice of reason in her head roared with distrust. It urged her to run the very second he had freed her, but Haruhi knew better. She had nowhere to run, he was blocking her only exit. Even if she got to the window and shouted for help, there was no guarantee anyone would hear her. All it would do for sure was make her captor angry. That was the last thing Haruhi wanted right now.
Slowly, she nodded her head. He gave a sigh of relief and dropped her to the ground. Haruhi took several deep breaths once his hand was gone and massaged her throat. She could smell rubber, like he'd been wearing latex gloves recently. This brought to light many new and terrifying possibilities for what he might do to her. Turning around, she could now see the man bathed in revealing, artificial light.
He was just as strange looking as his behavior might entail. The spiky red hair matted down on his head was a fiery shade that put Hikaru and Kaoru's to shame. His eyes were dark green and wide like that of a child. He had a plain face, with a disproportionately thin nose at it's center. His body was lanky, made no better by the heavy, red duster jacket he wore over an ill-fitting white shirt that revealed an almost emaciated looking torso.
At this point, Haruhi had every reason to believe he was some random bum off the street, possibly looking for a few extra bucks laying around some unsuspecting person's house.
And that would have been a perfect theory, with all the pieces fitting together, were it not for those damn wings.
"Look, we have nothing here worth stealing," Haruhi said, raising her hands in surrender. "I can give you some money, if that's what you want, but I-"
"I don't want your money," the man interrupted, rolling his eyes. "I already said I'm not here to hurt you. If you can stay calm long enough, I'll tell you whatever you want to know."
Haruhi processed his words, trying to see them as a lawyer would; as her mother would. The man sounded sincere, but so did crooked salesmen and con artists when they wanted to lull you into a false sense of security before they struck. She currently knew nothing about this guy, save for that he had no issue with more or less holding her hostage in her own home, and that wasn't a good starting point to build trust off of.
As if sensing her fears, the man pulled off his jacket, holding it out by two fingers and shaking vigorously.
"See that? I'm unarmed."
He dropped the jacket to the floor and lifted his shirt to show a bare chest and nothing else. Next were his pants pockets, turned inside out to reveal only lint.
"I don't have anything on me. I have no gun in my jacket, no knife in my pocket, and the only thing I'm packing is my-"
"Alright!" Haruhi let out a shaky breath and kicked the jacket away just in case. "Fine just- just tell me what you're doing here. Who are you?"
The man gave a nod of his own and flopped down on the couch. Though Haruhi didn't care for his casual attitude towards lounging around in a complete stranger's home, she wouldn't dare voice such complaints. She still had no guarantee that he really wasn't dangerous.
"Well first thing's first, my name is Ozzie," the man said.
Haruhi gave him a look, and Ozzie answered with a frown.
"My parents were into that whole British Metal scene, okay?" he said defensively. "Anyway, I work as a Cupid, and I was busy on the job when I lost my way in that storm. A wayward bolt of lightning singed my wing and knocked me out of the sky. And so here I am in your living room… something wrong?"
This was a substantial understatement, as evidenced by Haruhi's slack jawed expression and eye roaming over those barely visible wings. The one on the right moved around slowly, settling in. The left one was stationary, and jutted out at an odd angle, making it easier to spot.
"You. You uh…" Haruhi stopped to clear her throat. "You said you're Cupid?"
"A Cupid," Ozzie was quick to correct her. "Not The Cupid. The Cupid is a lazy ass who hasn't worked a day in over twenty years. He leaves it all to us overworked employees while he and his wife go off to do God only knows what, and doesn't even pay for overtime. Ungrateful bastard…"
He descended into soft mumbling that Haruhi couldn't make out, not that she was trying to. No, all her focus was on the extraordinary claims he made so flippantly, like he was telling her the time.
"I-" she stammered, bringing a hand to her head where she felt a deep throbbing. "I'm not sure I follow this."
Ozzie pursed his lips, slouching over in his seat and bringing his wet boots up to rest on the end table. Haruhi was not so out of it as to not notice, and shot Ozzie a glare that he didn't acknowledge.
"Alright, sit down then. This is going to take some time," and he waved at a chair on the other side of the room.
Haruhi glanced at it, not sure how to feel about being asked to sit in her own living room. Wasn't it suppose to be her inviting him? Not that she would've had she any choice in the matter. Regardless, Haruhi grabbed the armchair and pulled it closer, not taking her eyes off Ozzie for even a second.
"Okay," he said. "So I'm a Cupid. More specifically, I am a messenger of love who works mainly during the months of February and March. My job is to bring Destined Loves together. See, everyone has another person with whom they are most compatible, someone they can share anything with and who will love them come what may."
"You're talking about Soulmates," Haruhi inferred.
Ozzie hesitated, then gave a shrug. "Well yeah, but no. We don't use that word anymore. Too commercial."
Haruhi gave him a blank stare.
"We call them Destined Loves," Ozzie enunciated like he was teaching it to a child. "I know it's a bit of a mouthful, but it's regulation, so we just have to go with it. Anyway, what I do is use my magic to help people find that person. In my time, I've been responsible for over 250 successful matches, thank you very much."
He puffed out his chest proudly, grinning so his mouth full of pearly white teeth were showing. If he expected Haruhi to be impressed or complimentary, he was disappointed. All he got was more weariness.
"That sounds nice," she said. "But if you're really a Cupid and there are more of you out there doing this kind of work, can you explain to me why the divorce rate is so high?"
Ozzie snorted and rolled his eyes, like he'd just been told a really bad joke.
"Sure I can. It's because humans are abominably stupid," he replied bluntly. "They'll think they've fallen in love when it's really either crazy hormones or delusions of grandeur talking. Then they get married, and it's all downhill from there."
Haruhi considered this. "Okay… why don't you stop it from happening?"
"Because that's not how the job works," Ozzie said, grabbing a paperweight off the small table and half-heartedly looking it over. "We know when a person is close to their Destined Love and that's when we can come in and work our magic. Otherwise, we can't do crap. That whole media spiel about us hitting random Joes with arrows so they fall in love with the first random Alice they see is a total crock. We don't create love, we nurture it; we help it to grow. Our success rate is through the roof, the spark just has to be there first."
He dropped the paperweight, and it made an unpleasant sound upon impact, but thankfully nothing was broken. Haruhi winced anyway, wishing more and more that she could throw this obviously crazy person out of her house without any grievous harm to her person. For now, and until she could make a plan to get out of this, she'd just have to keep humoring him.
"So if two people who are meant to be are in a position where they can get together, you can help them, but if one of them is trying to be with someone else, you can't?"
"More or less," Ozzie shrugged. "The sad truth is that a lot of humans go many, many years without finding their Destined Love. Hell, some never do. Along the way, they make bad decisions and get into bad, unfulfilling or, worst case scenario, abusive relationships. That's why it's always special when someone gets lucky, like a good percentage of people around here.
"See, the Kanto Region of Japan is a hotspot this year. There are more people in close proximity with their true loves in this region alone than in all of Asia, if not the world. There are usually two or three places like this every year and it's never the same one twice. For example, the big hotspots last year were both in European nations. This year, we have Kanto and a city in North America. You follow me?"
"I think so," Haruhi said with a nodded, twiddling her thumbs nervously. "So what now? What are you going to do?"
At this, Ozzie sprang to his feet, so fast that it made the already on edge Haruhi jump out of her own seat. Ozzie grabbed her hand without warning, shaking it violently and grinning.
"Well, it was nice chatting with you, but I need to get back to work. Can't have all my guys out there breaking their backs while I sit around doing nothing… no matter how tempting a notion that is…"
He threw her hand aside and started for the door. When his wings began to unfurl, Haruhi bolted out after him, arriving just in time to find him, wings stretched out to their max for all the world to see.
"Aren't you afraid someone will see you?"
"Hmm…" Ozzie didn't appear to really be paying attention to her. "Oh please, don't act like I'm an idiot. Nobody ever sees us, we always stay invisible when on the job. Only under very, and I do mean very, special circumstances would we willingly reveal ourselves to a human."
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out, nor would any words form in her mind. Everything was hitting her all at once, and Haruhi still didn't know what to think. The obvious answer according to basic common sense was that Ozzie was insane, but how would that explain that very real set of wings she'd been unable to fully process all this time?
Not only that, there was the fact that he was now hoisting himself onto the railing, inhuman balance keeping him upright and capable of turning his head to nod goodbye.
"It was nice meeting you, by the way."
And then he vanished.
He didn't spread his wings and fly, he didn't even jump. He was there one second and gone the next, right before Haruhi's eyes. A gasp tore from her throat, cold fear gripping her as she ran for the railing and looked down. Nothing was there except a pile of yesterday's garbage.
Haruhi blinked, her shock replaced by confusion, but the fear remaining. She slowly backed away, eyes darting to and froe as if expecting to find Ozzie standing there, snickering as he proclaimed that he'd fooled her. There was nothing, and though still deeply shaken, Haruhi was prepared to get back inside before anything else crazy or potentially life threatening happened. Perhaps Ozzie was just a hallucination induced by her fear of the thunderstorm. Or maybe she really was coming down with something.
She took one last look at the barren ground below, ready to turn and leave just as she heard a loud thud and saw one of the garbage pails fly into the air, seemingly for no reason. Haruhi gave a shout that mixed with the furious grunts of someone she couldn't see. This was followed by a long string of curses and heavy footsteps banging up the stairs, going two at a time. At the very top, Ozzie appeared, again out of nowhere. His wings were folded back, but now the one on the left was even more bent out of shape. It hung out limp, not even able to fully close. This was likely the reason why Ozzie was red in the face and fuming.
"I can't fly," he grumbled.
Swallowing, Haruhi drew herself to full (and unimpressive by comparison) height, determined to see this insanity through to the end. Now that she knew Ozzie probably wasn't lying to her, all the fears from earlier were dulling down substantially. This didn't make what she was about to do any less of a stupid idea, according to her logical side.
"Would you like to come back in?"
Ozzie gave her a blank stare, one that turned into a smile when it became clear that she was serious.
"That's very kind of you," he said as he moved passed her and re-entered the house.
Haruhi followed, closing the door behind her while chewing on her bottom lip in an effort to avoid telling him just how she felt about his treatment of her hospitality. He had taken his spot on the couch back, along with his makeshift foot rest.
While Haruhi went to grab something to drink, Ozzie was examining his wing, the edge of his tongue sticking out as he moved his hand up and down every inch of it.
"Are you thirsty?" Haruhi asked awkwardly. "I have water, tea and milk."
She suspected from the intensity with which he threw himself into the self-inspection that he would not respond, and Ozzie didn't disappoint. Haruhi had finished half her cup of tea by the time he gave a heavy sigh and leaned back, hitting his head once or twice on the wall behind him before relaxing.
"My wing is broken," he said through grit teeth. "This is bad."
Haruhi clicked her tongue. "What uh… what can you do to fix it?"
Ozzie opened one eye to look at her, and Haruhi found she didn't like the little gleam it had randomly acquired. When he sat up and opened the other one, a funny sort of smile gracing his features, Haruhi hated it.
"That's the thing," Ozzie said. "I can actually fix the thing on my own. I just have to focus all my energy and magic onto it. This is basic first-aid we learn in our first year of training. As long as I don't do anything else strenuous in the time that I need to heal, I can be back in the air within no more than a few days."
Haruhi nodded, though she wasn't quite sure if this was a relief or not. She knew Ozzie had some idea in mind for this, and her specifically. She just hoped it didn't involve what she thought it did.
"The problem is that I can't afford to miss any work," Ozzie continued, pursing his lips. "Valentine's Day is almost here and it's going to be love, love and more love. My colleagues are too busy with their own areas to cover for me, and what if I'm not around and everyone starts getting with the wrong people? That'd be a fiasco. I'd lose my job for sure!"
His explanation had turned into ramblings at this point, and Haruhi doubted he was talking to anyone but himself. Ozzie trailed off there, gaze straying to the ceiling. It was like he wanted her to be uneasy around him right when she'd just gotten over thinking he was a crazy homeless burglar.
"Can't you do anything else?" Haruhi asked, regretting the question once his smile became an eerie grin.
Ozzie stood. "Nothing aside from trying to recover as fast as I can. Until then, I'll have to stay off my feet and out of sight. I can't let word of this get back to my boss or else I'll get written up, maybe even worse. If I can just keep up with work while healing, I should be fine."
"And how are you going to do that?" Haruhi asked. 'I really hope you're not implying that I should let you stay here. I am NOT doing that.'
Ozzie clapped a hand on Haruhi's shoulder, pulling her close in a friendly way that just made her want to put more distance between them.
"That, my dear friend, is where you come in," Ozzie said, mussing up her hair with fervor. "I need a place to stay for the time being, and you seem to have plenty of room!"
"Wait a minute, you can't-"
"Also, since you're young and in high school, you'll be at most of the Hot locations anyway."
His hand on her head stopped, fingertips digging into Haruhi's skull painfully. She gave a whimper, but Ozzie didn't acknowledge her discomfort. This was exactly what he wanted.
"Congratulations! As of right now, and until further notice, you are a substitute Cupid!"
Like a bullet, Haruhi felt something hard and fast strike her through the temples. An explosion of pain left her screaming in agony and falling to the ground. Her head was pounding as she opened her eyes to find that everything was pitch black. Horrified, Haruhi scrunched them shut again, smacking a hand over her mouth to prevent more screaming. She wouldn't be surprised if she'd already given the neighbors a heart attack from her initial reaction.
"I can't see!" she cried.
"Oh that?" Ozzie casually responded. He almost sounded bored. "Relax, that'll pass."
Though Haruhi felt like hitting him in the stupid, smiling face with something big and heavy, the pain was admittedly fading faster than it had come. The terror of potential blindness hadn't left her yet, but Haruhi found it in her to open her eyes once more. This time, she breathed a sigh of relief; her vision was as clear as it had ever been.
In fact, she'd say it was even clearer.
Haruhi had to blink a few times to confirm it wasn't an illusion, that the world around didn't have a sharpness that wasn't there before. She picked up a random object, her cell phone, and turned over in her hand, looking at it from all angles. She could see little cracks in the plastic, including a nice long one running up and down the length of the back cover. It likely came from one of the times her Dad used the phone and got his sharpened fake nails everywhere. Why had she never seen that before? It looked really deep.
"Pretty cool, huh?"
Her head whipped around, and there was Ozzie. He looked different all of a sudden too, the red color of his hair now more shocking somehow. His seemingly flawless skin also had traces of scars and blemishes mostly around his neck. Haruhi took a deep, labored breath.
"What did you do to me?" she asked, careful not to show too much emotion lest she start to really freak out.
Ozzie may have noticed this, as his first response was to laugh at her. Haruhi grit her teeth in anger.
"Nothing bad," he said with a wave of his hand, dismissing her turmoil. "I know it feels weird right now, but you'll get used to it after a while. It just comes with being a Cupid."
"I'm not a Cupid," Haruhi objected.
"You're only half-right. You weren't a Cupid before, and technically you aren't one now, but you do have some of my powers."
"What?"
Ozzie took the opportunity to grab his by the arm and roughly pull her towards the door, not letting up even when Haruhi protested.
"Come on," he urged her.
He burst out the door for the second time that day, revealing a setting sun somehow visible behind numerous dense clouds. Haruhi briefly wondered if it was going to storm again, but was distracted by Ozzie pushing her against the railing, forcing her to look down.
"See anyone yet?" he asked, glancing around the empty area on his own. "Any couples?"
"What does it matter?"
"Seriously? The whole point of this was so you could see the way I do. Just keep looking."
There were many more questions Haruhi wanted to ask, but at the moment, she was too exhausted and wanted nothing more than to run back inside, lock the door, and go to sleep. Hopefully she'd wake up the next morning, and this will have all been nothing more than an especially vivid dream. First, she'd have to get the very real and very solid Ozzie to let her go…
Haruhi groaned, letting her head drop onto the cold metal, only for Ozzie to shake her back into awareness.
"Pay attention," he ordered. "Look, someone's coming!"
Haruhi glanced out, finding a young couple pressed against each other and smiling serenely. They reminded her a great deal of the lovestruck pair she'd seen on the streets, but she was pretty sure this wasn't them. She didn't know what made them so special that Ozzie expected her to be amazed or impressed.
Then she saw their hands, and her jaw dropped.
With their fingers laced together, it was difficult to see where the ends were tied off, but there was most definitely a glowing red string attached to the man and woman's hands. It moved with the wind, but slower than it should have. Even more bizarre was when the couple got closer, and Haruhi saw that the string was intangible. Everything she could see through it took on an red-ish tint. At one point, the man let go of the woman's hand so he could move away and pick up some garbage on the ground, tossing it into a nearby trash receptacle. The ends of the string were tied to the couple's ring fingers, and it stretched easily, showing no sign of wearing thin or breaking. It seemed to grow longer no matter how much distance the man put between himself and his girlfriend.
The wheels in Haruhi's head were running a mile a minute, even worse than when she'd seen Ozzie's wings for the first time. Try as she might, she couldn't figure out an explanation for this. The man walked back to his lover, taking back her hand as they continued on their way, blissfully ignorant of everything except each other.
"What was that?" Haruhi breathed.
Above her, Ozzie puffed out his chest triumphantly. "I knew this would work. With you on the job, my recovery is going to be a piece of cake."
"Those strings… were they real?"
"I am going to have to teach you a few things of course. Since you don't have all my powers, you'll have to rely a lot on your own abilities to bring people together. Shouldn't be too hard, you seem smart enough."
"This can't be happening."
Ozzie grinned. "Oh, but it is."
He guided her back inside and shut the door. While he bolted it and closed the curtains, Haruhi fell back on her chair. So great was her shock and awe, she was unable to object to Ozzie's strutting. He kneeled down in front of her, taking in her spaced out look, and snapped his fingers.
"Hey," he said sharply. "We have things to talk about. Try to pay attention."
This was unnecessary, as his snapping alone had broken the spell on Haruhi and brought her back to full awareness. When she opened her mouth, Ozzie placed a finger over it.
"Save your questions for when I'm done," he said, drawing himself to full height. "Now then, what you just saw is called a Life Thread. Some cultures have also referred to it as the Red String of Fate. The color represents eternal love, so our goal is to get red Life Threads. Everyone has a Life Thread when they're born, and it always starts off pure white. Once you meet your Destined Love, it turns pink. The shade of pink varies depending on how close you are to your Destined Love, but only experienced Cupids can see that. All you're going to see is solid pink.
"When you and your Destined Love admit your feelings for each other, your Life Threads connect and turn red. Now, if you're worried about seeing a bunch of red strings stretched across the city, don't be. At that point, the strings are only visible when you and your Destined Love are within twenty feet of each other. Any further and they become invisible until you get close again.
"There are other color strings of course. You mentioned the high divorce rate, and any couple like that it going to have a blue Life Thread. It functions the same as a red one, only the color is different. You can tell when blue Life Threads are going to happen because they are preceded by orange Life Threads. Orange represents infatuation, fake love that's doomed to fail. About 80 percent of the time when a Life Thread isn't white, it's going to be orange or blue, and the rest will be pink and red. I know that may not seem like much, but trust me, it adds up. Now as I've already said, this region of Tokyo is a hot spot this year. That means I, and by extension you, have a massive workload ahead…"
He stopped short, giving her a concerned look that she was too dumbstruck to really see. Her eyes went right through him, unseeing except for the going-ons in her head.
This was a dream.
This had to be a dream.
There was no way a man with wings, claiming to be Cupid, had just given her the power to see pieces of string that tied people together and told their romantic futures. That's nothing more than ridiculous shojo fodder and cannot happen in real life.
Haruhi's wide open mouth emitted a soft rattling sound like a car engine failing. Ozzie chuckled, shaking his head as he approached her.
"Which is why I say we hold off on the Q and A. This is a lot for you to take in, and you're going to need all the rest you can get."
He didn't wait for a response before plucking her out of the chair. Haruhi felt her body lift, held by strong arms that carried her out of the living room and into her bedroom. Ozzie leaned over and gently laid her on the futon, covering her with a thick blanket.
"We'll have another lesson tomorrow," he said while fluffing her pillow. "I think we've covered the basics, but there's still more I need to teach you."
Standing up straight, he headed out the sliding door. Ozzie stopped short, giving her prone form one last smile and a thumbs up.
"Don't you worry about a thing, Haruhi. You're going to do great!"
He closed it tight, his shadow disappearing as he walked out of sight. Haruhi was unable to stop him, for her eyes grew heavy the moment her body hit the futon. It was unrelenting and uncaring of the current circumstances. Haruhi had no choice but to give in. The last thing on her mind before she allowed sleep to claim her was that she didn't recall ever telling Ozzie her name.