Cupid

Xander was pissed. He'd worked his ass off to earn the money to buy Cordelia something nice and she'd dumped him, on Valentine's Day, in the middle of the dance floor. If there was a worse place and time to break up with someone, he didn't know what it was.

He wasn't sure what he could do to pay her back, until he spotted Amy using magic to cover up not doing her homework. This he could work with.

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Hercules winced. He wasn't sure what had upset his sister, but she was pissed! He could feel it from the mortal plane.

"So you think love is a toy, huh?" Aphrodite growled out.

"Sis?" he asked cautiously as he approached, appearing in a flash of light.

"Herc?" she asked before squealing and running over to give him a hug. "It's good to see you! I thought you were hanging out on the mortal plane."

"I am, but that doesn't mean I can't stop in to visit my favorite sister."

Despite his legendary strength her hug almost crushed his ribs.

"So... stop by for a quickie?" she asked, running a finger down his chest after she'd released him.

"Later," he promised, catching her hand. "Right now I just came to catch up on how things are going with you and see what's gotten you so angry."

Sparks crackled off her eyelashes as she ground her teeth. "This," she said, gesturing to a pool of water that rested in a floating cloud (she'd decorated her entire domain in nothing but clouds this season) showing a young man and woman invoke her power.

"He seeks love to betray it?" Hercules guessed, knowing what angered his normally cheerful sister.

"Exactly! I can even understand his feelings, since he merely wishes to do to her what she did to him, but that doesn't excuse perverting love that way!"

"Let's look at his history," Hercules suggested.

"Trying to calm my ire?" she asked, amused.

"If it doesn't, it'll at least give you some good ideas for how to punish him," Hercules replied.

"Fair enough," she agreed as a gesture revealed his full history to the pair.

"He's not lucky in love or life in general," Hercules said with a sigh.

"True," Aphrodite agreed. "This doesn't excuse his actions, however."

"Yeah, but did you catch his comment about irony?"

"You have an idea?" she asked.

"Wouldn't it be ironic if every woman in town, except the one he wanted, felt a fatal attraction for him?"

Aphrodite grinned. "Have I ever told you that you are my favorite brother?"

"Yes, but generally only when I'm going down on you."

"Well, let me assure you it's true, even when your tongue isn't in my muff," she said cheerfully.

Hercules laughed. "Have the spell last until sunset and judge him by how he responds?"

"Sure, as long as you're not expecting me to go easy on him."

"If he resists temptation, he deserves a harder test to see if he earned a reward, and if he fails then he deserves punishment."

Aphrodite laughed.

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"They act like I actually took them up on their offers instead of running like hell," Xander complained to Giles.

"Yes, well your foray into magic upset a great many people," Giles said. "Being forced to act like they did is a violation they won't soon forget."

Typing By: Ordieth