From this delightful prompt from my sweetest follower, strongtvwomen: "protecting Cupid like they did Santa." This one was tricky! I love the prompt and had all the ideas but the story wasn't quite cooperating with me. I tried to have it done last night but sometimes you just have to know when to call it a day. It still isn't quite what I originally thought it would be but I'm fairly content with it now! Hope you are too (:
"Well honestly, Jenkins, this is absurd. What do you mean he's real?"
Jenkins sighed heavily. "Mr. Stone, after a while, I'd really expect you to stop questioning these things."
"I'm willing to accept a lot by now, but this?" Jacob threw a hand out, indicating the man in question.
"You really want us to believe that Cupid is real?" Ezekiel added, quirking an eyebrow.
"Well, sort of?" Jenkins leaned on his desk. "Again, it's not in the way you think. He's not some fat little winged baby that goes around shooting people with arrows willy-nilly and causing romantic chaos."
"I'm right here," Cupid pointed out, waving a hand in the air. A fairly androgynous-looking young man in maybe his late teens or early twenties, he was slim with an olive complexion, curly dark hair, and huge brown eyes. He was dressed rather innocuously in a band tee and a pair of jeans. "And for the record, the fat babies are puttoes, or cherubs, and romantic chaos is really more Puck's deal than mine. I have a little more finesse, okay."
Cassandra peeked around the shelf she was hiding behind. "Can I come out now? I'd really like to meet you, Cupid," she said, a little plaintively.
"Not if you're still wearing that bee sweater!" he snapped, crossing his arms.
"I don't have anything else to wear," she told him, casting Jenkins a pleading look.
Jenkins only shrugged. "Cupid hates bees, Cassandra, I'm sorry."
Jake rolled his eyes and unbuttoned his plaid flannel, striding over to the shelf Cassandra was hiding behind. "Here," he offered, pulling it off and holding it out to her.
"Will you be warm enough in just your t-shirt?" she asked.
"I'll be fine," he told her. "I think I have another shirt in my car if it really turns out to be an issue."
"All right…" Cassandra took the shirt from his outstretched hand. "Give me a minute." She retreated behind the shelf again and Jake turned around, facing Jenkins again.
"So why are we babysitting Cupid?"
"Babysitting!" Cupid cried in indignation before Jenkins could answer. "I'm thousands of years old! You're bodyguarding me while your dumb boss and his Guardian try to get my bow and arrows back!"
"This is kind of Flynn's fault," Jenkins said with a nod. "He did get them stolen in the first place."
"I wish I had any idea how that happened," Cassandra muttered, emerging from behind Jacob with his shirt tied at her waist and then buttoned the rest of the way up. The blue-and-black plaid went surprisingly well with her floral skirt. Jake blinked and raised his eyebrows as he watched her cross the room, bundling her bumblebee sweater into a ball and shoving it into a drawer in Jenkins' desk.
"What do various bad guys want with Cupid's bow and arrows anyway?" Ezekiel asked. "Don't know how much they can accomplish just making people fall in love all over the place." Cupid bristled again, but he didn't have a chance to speak.
"Do you just pretend the whole Cindy ordeal didn't happen?" Cassandra asked Ezekiel, raising her eyebrows. "Is it denial?"
Jake cleared his throat. "Actually, if we're going by the early Roman myths, there are probably two types of arrows, right? Gold and lead." He glanced at Cupid, sighing. "The gold ones fill the victim with uncontrollable desire, and the lead with aversion and a desire to flee."
Cupid huffed. "A highly simplistic explanation, but yeah, I guess that's basically accurate," he admitted grouchily.
"So it's the lead arrows they probably want then," Ezekiel surmised. "All right. I guess I can see that."
"And there's nothing else we can do?" Cassandra asked, turning to Jenkins again. "Flynn really just wants us to look after Cupid?"
"I assure you, he and Eve have the situation under control," Jenkins told her. "They only need us to keep an eye on Cupid here at the Library."
"All right, mate," Ezekiel said, turning to Cupid. "Not everybody gets invited to hang out in the Library. Whaddaya wanna do while you're here?"
x
"Is that Pan's flute? I haven't seen that thing in ages. I wonder how Pan's doing these days. I never quite liked that guy…" Cupid was commenting as they walked him through the Library's collection. He and Ezekiel were in the lead, Ezekiel always surprisingly enthusiastic about showing off the Library's more interesting artifacts when he had the chance, as if he were responsible for the retrieval of every one of them instead of just a scattered few.
Lagging behind them by ten or twelve feet, Jake and Cassie exchanged amused glances while they listened to their friend find ways to brag about artifacts he'd never even touched before. "Hey. By the way," Jacob said quietly after looking at her once. "You look good in that shirt. Much cuter on you than it ever is on me."
Cassandra smiled brightly. "Oh, thank you!" she said, smoothing her skirt self-consciously. "It's comfy. I've never been a flannels person, but maybe I should invest in one or two."
Grinning, he joked, "I'll be sure to point you to all my favourite cowboy outlet stores." She giggled.
The two of them looked ahead again and caught Cupid casting them a suspicious glance over his shoulder. Awkwardly, they shuffled a couple of inches apart as they walked, but the smiles didn't quite disappear from their faces.
"Oh, hey, I have a good idea," Ezekiel suggested. "Let's go visit Nessie Jr. in the large collections annex."
"Nessie Jr.?" Cupid asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, Nessie laid an egg earlier this year. I got to babysit it for a bit," Ezekiel told him with a grin. "Actually it hatched with me so I'm Nessie Jr.'s mom as far as she's concerned. She's bonding with her real mom okay I think, but I still spend a lot of time with her. It works out, since Nessie spends time back in her Loch on a pretty regular basis anyway." He set off towards the hall of doors.
Inside the large collections annex Ezekiel turned left and led the other three down a long, winding staircase to the artificial lake that sat below the annex's branching pathways and exciting artifacts. A soft blue glow rose from the water. Ezekiel knelt down at the edge and splashed his hand on the smooth surface. "Hey, Ness!" he called.
The little lake monster's head popped up from the surface a moment later. She was growing fast, nearly as big as Ezekiel now. He greeted her fondly, scratching the top of her head, encouraging Cupid to pet her too when the young god expressed uncertainty.
Off to one side, Jake and Cassie smiled at the scene. They'd been to visit baby Nessie often enough with Ezekiel that the novelty had worn off, and now she seemed almost mundane, like a friend's dog. Always charming, but no longer quite as exciting as she had once been.
Nessie Jr. dipped under the water again, swimming away, and came back a few moments later with a soft ball clamped in her mouth. "Aw, wanna play, girl?" Ezekiel asked her fondly as she deposited it in his outstretched hand. He wound up his arm and hurled the waterlogged ball as far across the lake as he could, watching it sink beneath the surface. While she dove away to find it, he kicked off his shoes and rolled up his pants, perching on the edge with his feet dangling in the water.
Jake and Cassandra both knew that meant they'd be there for a while. Baby Nessie could take ages to tire out. He glanced at her and jabbed a thumb towards the water. "You wanna put your feet in too?" he asked.
"Yeah, that sounds nice," she answered, toeing out of her shoes. He did the same, stuffing his socks inside his boots and cuffing his jeans, and they sat down side-by-side on the edge of the lake, a short distance away from Ezekiel. Cupid watched the three of them for a moment, then shrugged and leaned down to untie his sneakers. He sat down by Ezekiel as Nessie came back with the ball.
"So, whaddaya think of Cupid?" Jake asked, leaning back on his arms and looking at Cassandra.
"He's kind of odd," she admitted. "It's not like meeting Santa. Cupid seems more like… I dunno, just a kid."
"Underwhelmed, huh?"
She smiled. "I guess a little. I don't want to be rude, though. Maybe he'd be more impressive with his bow and arrows? We'll have to see when Eve and Flynn come back."
"Yeah, maybe." Jake tossed a glance over at Cupid where he sat by Ezekiel, watching Ness a little warily. "Man, the bee thing was weird. I know the guy got stung once, but still…"
"I know, right?" Cassie agreed, feigning offense. "I don't know what his problem was. That sweater is adorable, and I look great in it."
"Yeah, it's pretty cute on you," Jake answered, grinning back at her. "But everythin's cute on you, so I don't figure anyone's losin' out." Cassandra smiled then, dropping the mock vanity, and looked down at her feet in the water.
Little Nessie brought the ball back to Ezekiel several times in a row, only ever taking two or three minutes to find it and bring it back. On her fifth or sixth return she swam over to Jake instead, depositing the sopping ball next to him. "Aw, Nessie," he complained. "You're gonna get my pants all wet." He scooted closer to Cassandra to avoid the growing puddle.
"She knows you have the best arm, mate," Ezekiel laughed.
Jake sighed. "All right, kid," he said to the young lake monster. He pulled his feet out of the water and got up, hoisting the ball and throwing it as far as he was able. It soared into the distance and Nessie dove cheerfully away. Jake sat down again, tight up against Cassandra's side to avoid the now sizeable puddle on his left. She didn't move away, instead giggling as they returned to whatever conversation they'd been having.
Cupid pinched the bridge of his nose. "Are they always like this?" he asked Ezekiel.
"Oh god yeah, it's always this bad, mate," Ezekiel answered with a snort. "You don't know the half of it."
"It comes off them in waves," Cupid complained. "I may not have my bow and arrows, but my sensibilities remain intact. I can feel those two like you could feel your pants on fire."
Somehow, in the process of shuffling over away from the puddle, Jake had managed to splash Cassie's legs, and in retaliation she'd splashed back at him. Laughing, he'd kicked back, and by now they were splashing each other and giggling away like children. Cupid put his fingers to his temples. "Mars's beard," he muttered.
An hour or so later, once Nessie Jr. had finally tired of playing fetch, the four of them climbed up the stairs again and headed back into the main Library, shoes in hand. Their bottoms were all wet after being splashed and nuzzled by an affectionate Nessie, and they agreed to head back to the Annex for towels and some lunch.
Towels wrapped around everyone's waists (and an irritable Jenkins grumbling at them as he left to mop up the damp trail they'd left behind them), they soon stood in the Annex kitchen finding themselves something to eat. Ezekiel and Cupid agreed to split the leftover pizza from the fridge, and Jake and Cassie started in on making sandwiches. Apparently their playful mood hadn't worn off yet, because they stood side-by-side at the kitchen counter, hip-bumping each other aside and stealing knives and condiments from each other, each trying to finish their own sandwich first.
Cupid groaned, and Ezekiel shot him a sympathetic look from his position next to the toaster oven. "Okay. You two?" the god finally said, loudly. Jake and Cassandra turned to look at him in surprise. "This is unbearable," he informed them. "I'm the god of affection, attraction, desire, and erotic love. I can feel that stuff, especially the unrequited variety. And sweet baby Hercules, you and your mutual pining is giving me the biggest headache. Do you know what that feels like to me? Poor Ezekiel has to deal with you all the time. He calls it tension; I call it everything is on fire." He threw his hands in the air. "If I had my damned bow and arrows, I'd shoot you both right now and let you figure it out. One golden arrow, clean through the both of you." Closing one eye and extending his arms in a pantomime of archery, he lined up the shot. "Your shoulder, then hers. Zip. Everything you two aren't saying comes right out."
Both were left wide-eyed by his exclamation, but off to one side, Ezekiel grinned delightedly. Jacob suddenly coughed. "We'd – we'd say all kinds of things if you shot us," he stammered. "That's what the golden arrow does, it fills people with desire."
"No-o-o-o-o," Cupid told him, shaking his head and dragging the word out as if he were speaking to an idiot. "I told you that was a simplistic explanation. It forces you to reveal your existing desires. If I hit both halves of a pair with mutual feelings in one shot, it can bring all sorts of things to light, very fast. And with a pair like you, it is a huge relief." He pulled a hand back through his dark curls. "In fact, you know something? If you two don't get this sorted by the time your boss gets back here with my stuff, I will shoot you both, and then you'll have no choice in the matter."
At that moment the toaster oven dinged. Ezekiel removed the pizza he was reheating and dropped it onto a couple of plates. "Hey, Cupid, you wanna go eat in the Annex?" he asked conversationally.
"Yes," Cupid answered, giving Jake and Cassandra a wide-eyed, very pointed look. He took his pizza from Ezekiel and followed him out the door.
The pair exchanged awkward glances. "So, um…" Cassandra started, slowly putting the mayonnaise-covered knife down on top of the jar.
"Yeah." Jake cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I uh… I guess we should talk, huh?"
x
Cupid was finishing his pizza when he suddenly slumped over and exhaled loudly. "OH wow, damn, I feel like someone just lifted a load of bricks off my chest," he groaned. "They got it sorted, all right."
"Oh really?" Ezekiel asked, grinning again. He hopped to his feet. "Well, I've got to at least take a peek."
He trotted cheerfully back to the kitchen door and peered in, silent as ever. Jacob had Cassandra pressed back against the edge of the counter, kissing her deeply, his hands on her hips and hers on the back of his neck. Their unfinished sandwiches lay open and forgotten on the cutting board beside her. Grinning widely, Ezekiel nodded and turned back down the hall.
"Thank you, Cupid," he said as he returned, hopping up to sit on the edge of the central table. "They're still going to be insufferable, but at least now I can tell them to get a room."