C.A. Cupid was crying. C.A. Cupid was crying.
In the middle of the Commoner's Commonroom, C.A. Cupid was crying. And Hopper was there to bear witness. Perhaps he was meant to do more than that, but as he gazed at Cupid's shaking form, he was frozen.
He stood, and he stared until Cupid looked up and saw him. He fumbled for something to say. But he wasn't that great at talking in normal circumstances, and this was a fairy abnormal circumstance.
Cupid wiped her tears away. She smiled at him.
"Hey, Hopper." Her voice was still watery. "What are you doing here?" She let out a little laugh, as if to hide the fading edges of her distress.
"Are you okay?"
Her face crumpled. She sniffled. Hopper felt ice in his veins. He had said the wrong thing. Now would be a fairy good time to be a frog. He wouldn't be tongue-tied, he would know hexactly what to say, and he wouldn't mess up and make his friend feel worse. Why was he so bad at this?
Cupid's eyes were welling up with tears. He didn't know what to do, so he did the only thing he could think of. He surged forward and hugged her, hoping that this time, he'd done right.
She stiffened in his arms, and his heart jumped into his throat. Of course he'd messed up again. Before he could let go and try to rectify the situation, Cupid grabbed him, and hugged him tightly. She had a really strong grip, actually. The hextra archery practice she'd been doing lately was paying off. She dug her face into his shoulder and sobbed. Right, focus on the task at hand, compliment her muscles later.
Hopper wasn't sure what to do. He awkwardly pat her back. It felt so weird and strange and like he should be doing something else to help her, but Cupid was calming down. As her sobs returned to sniffs, Hopper built up the courage to ask her another question.
"What's wrong?"
For a moment, she didn't respond. Hopper wondered if it was something she didn't want to talk about.
"...I miss my family," she whispered. "And my home. And my friends."
"Oh," he said intelligently.
Hopper hadn't hexpected that. He hadn't the fairest idea what could be troubling her, but he never would have come up with that. Cupid got along so well with everyone, it felt like she'd known them forever. It was so fairy easy to forget that she had grown up somewhere else.
That somewhere else, she had a different life waiting for her.
It stung a little, it stung a lot, to hear. She missed her friends. It made him feel less important to her, that tidbit about friends. He'd thought they were friends, good friends. Then again, good friends ought to know when their friends were feeling down and why. He'd had no clue about this. Maybe he wasn't that special a friend. They'd known each other for barely a year. Maybe they weren't friends at all.
Hopper sucked in a painful breath at the thought. He felt his own tears welling up. But this wasn't about him. Friend or not, he was a prince. And it was his princely duty to help any damsel in distress.
So he held her close and asked her about her home. He listened carefully to her tales of monsters and gods, while he did his best not to shatter. He asked her questions and kept her talking until a smile returned to her face. Even if it hurt to see her so happy in a life where they weren't friends. She taught him some monster slang and he did his best to parrot it with a smile and act like he wasn't dying inside.
"Thank you for listening to me, Hopper. I love Ever After and all of my friends here, but sometimes I just feel so down thinking about everyone that I left behind. I feel much better now that I've talked about it."
Hopper had stopped listening, caught on one fairy important part of what Cupid said. Dare he hope she meant what he thought?
"Wait, did you just say you have friends here?"
Cupid gave him a confused look. "Yes? I have a lot of friends here, including you."
"You said- earlier, you, I mean-"
"Hopper. Stop." He cut himself off and looked at Cupid, who was staring back at him. "Alright, now tell me again."
"Earlier, you said that you missed your friends, implying that you had no friends here-"
"I was talking about my friends at Monster High. Did you really think I meant to say you aren't my friend?"
He doesn't know how to respond to that. He did think that, but now it seems like a rather silly assumption. He rubbed the back of his neck.
Cupid sighed. "You're one of my beasties forever after, okay?"
A wave of confusion passed over him, before he broke out into a grin. "Yeah, beasties forever after."
"Good." She smiled, and he knew it was genuine.
With both crises averted, the friends' conversation took a natural turn into more light-hearted topic.
"Hey, I've always wondered, what does the C.A. stand for, anyway?"
"I've never told you? Chariclo Arganthone."
"Chariclo Arganthone Cupid? Seriously? That's the most hextremely obnoxious name I've ever heard. 'Madam Chariclo Arganthone Cupid, pleased to make your acquaintance.'" He laughed, "It suits you perfectly."
Cupid threw her hand over her chest in mock hurt. "I am not taking this slander from someone named Hopper Croakington II! 'Why, Your Majesty, Hopper Bigmouth Quicktongue Flycatcher Croakington II, how my I assist you?' That's so stupid."
"You can't just add more names to make my name worse, Charlemagne Aurelius Cupidtron."
"Yes I can, Hopper Piddley-Poo Marshwater Bugeater Frogprince Bigmouth Quicktongue Flycatcher Croakington II of Frogtown!"