I had a thought bubble grow in me recently... "What if I made Cupid face his past and his troubles?"

Welp, this is my answer to that thought I've had. This will be a multiple parter fic due to the content in this being a bit big for one chapter (tho I still have some one-shots & whatnot planned).

Would like to throw out that this story will have some uncomfortable moments, I DO NOT recommend if you're sensitive to upsetting content. And don't say I didn't warn you if you choose to read it anyway!

Here we go!

2:45 PM in HeadQuarters

"DISGUST!" I called out for the fifth time within the past 5 minutes. I began to have a worried look on my face. This is what I was greeted to upon waking up from a nap I took out of tiredness. The other emotions on a search party for her. Nobody knew where she went. Maybe something grossed her out beyond recognition and went to de-traumatize herself? Maybe she got sick and told no one? Who knew?

"Guys... I looked in the suggested places you told me... nothing... oh, and by the way, where's Fear!?" I said. I noticed Fear wasn't anywhere to be seen anywhere, however, he wasn't that hard to find, being in his room, looking like something had traumatized him. Him & Disgust were on the console for the past hour, and somewhere in that time, unbeknownst to anyone yet, him & Disgust got into some sort of disagreement, which escalated to a near-physical fight, which ended with her being accidentally ejected from HQ, despite her attempts to not be sucked out of HQ. Fear even tried to help her, but by then, it was too late.

"Fear? What's going on? Everything okay?" I asked him, in which he gave me intel on everything that happened. I was shocked hearing this, I about had a heart attack. However, didn't faint, as, again, I can be on the verge of such, but never actually do unless it's something very bad that's going on. I stood there for about a minute before silently leaving and gathering the other's in my office.

5 minutes later

"Guys... I regret to inform you that... welp, first off, I know where Disgust is to an extent, bad news... it's not up here in HQ, her & Fear got into an argument, and somewhere on that line, she got ejected from HQ... seems as though a certain two of you here had a similar situation happen...anyway, I have absolutely zero idea where Disgust might be... but I hope she's not in the pit of forgotten memories... however, I have better news to share with you guys. Since I know every nook & cranny of Riley's mind, including long-term, the core memory islands, subconscious, the likes... when Riley goes to sleep tonight, I will be ejecting myself from HQ temporarily, because I know several of you are going to be asking me to find her and that's exactly what I intend to do. Any questions or concerns?" I said after calling the brief meeting to order.

Dead silence for a bit.

"So... everyone understands what's happening?" I asked. All agreed in response. They just wanted me to go about rescuing Disgust. Since it turned out that Riley's been needing her & I recently (in accordance to the other emotions) for reasons that could basically only be explained by us.

This was about to be one hell of an adventure, that's for sure!

"So... how long do you think you'll be gone?" Sadness asked out of curiosity.

"Eh... I'm thinking about 48-72 hours... that might give me enough time to check every place for her. Can't guarantee it, however. Could be shorter, could be longer." I responded. And now to play the waiting game... given it was a Friday, which meant Riley could stay up a little later (unless a hockey game took place on a Saturday) than usual, so... who knew when she'd fall asleep.

11:15 PM that night...

We finally saw Riley fall asleep, and after letting the others send her memories from today into long-term... I decided that now was the time.

After Anger got the device ready to send me to long-term, I just stood there waiting to be sucked up.

"Now, I told Sadness this, but I should be back within 48-72 hours... I'm not guaranteeing this, however, and there's a good chance I could be gone even longer than that, or shorter... but I'm going to hope worst doesn't come to worst and I end up somewhere where I'm unrecoverable. For if I don't come back... do whatever you can to remember me! Anywho... I'm going now, so... catch y'all later." I said right before Anger hit the control button to send me to long-term. Everyone else wishing me luck in the process.

And away I went to long-term!

15 minutes later...

I really wasn't aware that I took a hard fall coming out of the tube, but there I was, back to my origin location... long-term!

"Man... haven't been here in a minute..." I whispered. I'd noticed it had expanded ever so slightly since I was sent up to HQ.

Realizing I had a job to do up here, I quickly shook myself off, and thought up of one thing before I searched every place up here.

"DISGUST!" I shouted at least 5 times while searching the area I was in (nearest the core memory islands) for at least 15 minutes.

"DISGUST! COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!" I then tried again. With worries rising in me quickly that maybe she accidentally fell into the forgotten memories... unless if Bing Bong were to have somehow come back and helped her, it would've been a lost cause if that happened.

"DISGUST! DON'T DO THIS TO ME!" I cried out with more fear, immediately thinking the worst has happened.

I chose to take a seat over the forgotten memories pit on Goofball Island, as I was basically upset at this point, tears began to run down my face, thinking I'd have just lost one of the emotions I truly cared about with all my heart.

"PLEASE DISGUST! PLEASE!" I screamed out tearfully. It was beginning to become clear that I was crying, and didn't realize it. That was until a voice was heard not even 5 minutes later.

"CUPID?"

I immediately quit my crying, calmed myself as best as I could, and despite me almost losing my balance, made it back to safety.

"D-Disgust? Is that you?" I asked in my loudest casual voice as possible, so as to get her attention.

"Cupid!?" The voice called out again

"Disgust!?" I tried again, however, I soon came to a realization that... her voice was a slight bit lower than this voice.

The voice plus myself came a bit closer to one another, until I could see her from a few-hundred meters away.

"Wait... that can't be..." I started.

It looked a lot like Sympathy, someone I lost many years ago when she fell into the pit of forgotten memories when Riley had the flu at age 9. Or apparently, so I thought.

"Cupid!" Sympathy called out once more.

"SYMPATHY!?" I asked in shock. Needless to say, she was more than psyched to see me alive & well. I wanted to faint in shock seeing her again. We finally came face to face with one another 60 seconds after that.

"Sympathy... I thought you..." I started, but couldn't bring myself to finish my statement.

"Yeah... I thought worst came to worst as well... but here I am!" Sympathy responded. This had to be a dream, so in response, I punched/pinched myself in hopes I'd wake up.

Nope, this was all too real.

"HOW!?" I asked upon realizing this was real.

"I'm just happy to see you again! Come! Walk with me, surely you'd like a drink?" Sympathy responded. I accepted, and we began our way to Imagination Land.

While in Imagination Land...

"So... what's new with you? Haven't seen you in a while." Sympathy asked me.

"Well... things are going rather fine, I guess... I'm living in HQ now, and I honestly couldn't have been more happier up there... even tho I was sent up there along with some hard to deal with emotions... and I'd rather not get started on how I felt about Anxiety, she was a PSYCHO! Glad I banished all of them to sub-conscious when I did... however I hope Anxiety got put in solitary confinement..." I responded back to her. This made Sympathy have a look of jealousy on her face briefly.

Yes. Her & I were set to be Riley's new emotions when she got the flu, but things went catastrophically horrible when we were on our way to HQ. What happened was, we needed a place to stay after Imagination Land was put under quarantine, and HQ was the one place we had in mind, so after camping out near an entrance tube that night, we got in a tube that a mind worker provided us with... however, for some reason or another, the mind workers were doing maintenance on her memories, and accidentally broke the tube that went to HQ, that tube... being the one we were in.

I luckily was able to make it to safety, Sympathy however... not so much. She took a HARD fall in the forgotten memories. Soon as I realized this, I looked over the edge of where I was, only to find her fading away. After that incident, I spent the next few years becoming the figure of Cupid that I am today.

"So... how'd you make it up there?" Sympathy asked me in curiosity.

"Well... after Riley turned 13... a mind worker found me and told me that I was going to be in HQ along with several other emotions... when I saw who else was coming for the first time... I got a little bit uneasy, cause like... I didn't know their intentions to begin with... but it seemed like they just did nothing but wreak havoc all over the place." I responded. Before I re-stated what I wanted to know instantly upon reuniting with her.

"I never had my question answered. How'd you survive?" I asked her back.

"Oh! Where are my manners!? Ha ha. Anyway... I had turned invisible while down there to make myself camouflaged whenever mind workers came to check on the pit, I bided my time down there thinking of escape plans to make it back to the surface. But I came up short... that was until about 2 years passed... I saw a bright glowing figure along with a weird looking elephant like thing, ironically enough, that figure, who I later realized was an HQ emotion, was also trying to escape this pit... I saw the elephant thing fading away, so... with no time to spare, I hopped on the "rocket" during their final attempt, and what do you know, I made it back to safety! I tried to find you afterward but... you were nowhere to be found... I had to go rogue since the other mind workers assumed I had faded away as well. But I'm very much still alive & well." Sympathy answered back.

This all meant, if it weren't for Joy & Bing-Bong, Sympathy wouldn't have been here today.

"Wow... so you met Joy & Bing-Bong... even if only briefly for the latter... but still!" I responded in a bit of apathy, everything was coming back to me now.

"Well... I'm just glad to have you back." I finished.

"Same to you! Anyways, what brought you out here?" Sympathy responded/asked me.

"Oh! Well... you see... I don't know if you know her... but an HQ emotion accidentally ejected herself earlier today, and I'm out here looking for her." I answered.

This made Sympathy glow up a bit more.

"Oh? Who is this emotion I probably haven't met? Odds are, it's probably Joy again." Sympathy answered back.

"Oh... no. It's not her. It's not Sadness either, sure you met her out here too... no, her appearance is green all over, has a neck scarf on her, and..." I started.

"You mean Disgust? Cupid! I've read all about HQ a few dozen times, I know everyone up there." Sympathy snarkily responded

"Yeah... her. Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm looking for her, however... I'm unsure as to if I can do this alone, so... I might need your help out here, I know you're not one for a search & rescue, but this is kind of imperative... as I went crazy for her the second I saw her for the first time." I said back

"Oh... you're with her now? Well... after that incident... I didn't deserve you after that, you know, thinking I was dead, among other things... so, I don't blame ya if you picked someone else after that. Otherwise, I'm happy for you. Also... I'll help out, but what's in it for me?" Sympathy wanted to know what the catch was to all of this.

"Look, there's no catch, okay? Well... other than having to fight our way to find her... which means battling the abusive emotions that I thought I had annihilated years ago..." I started before realizing what she had asked.

"Oh, wait, sorry! What's in it for you? Well... I'll make your dream come true and make you a new emotion in HQ. My treat!" I answered. Sympathy looked excited a la a kid in the candy shop heading that.

"HQ!? You'd do that... for me!?" She asked, thinking this wasn't real.

"I cross my heart, and hope to die!" I said back, meaning I was dead serious about it!

After a minute in disbelief, she finally realized this was real, and, welp...

"Let's do this!" Sympathy said in hype.

After finishing our drinks... the search began!

And that's where it all begins!

As I said, there will be more parts coming in the future, this just serves as the opening bit, explaining why not a lot happens here.

Also, I'm open for suggestions for the names for the abusive emotions that Cupid/Sympathy will be battling. Just drop me a PM about it if you're interested! And if you're interested... you can even request another emotion to tag along with the aforementioned OC's, a la Perrito in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, as I've been thinking about that a little bit.

Stay tuned!

Have a great day/night!