She swallows and looks me up and down. My heart is quickly thawing for the bright-eyed cupid. How long has it been since I’ve spoken to someone so easily? Since someone stirred something inside of me?
It feels like centuries.
“Are you excited about the party?”
“Yes, especially now.” She bites her lip, contemplating something before looking back at me. “I might not have been completely honest about what happens at the party.”
I lean down, resting my elbow on the grass. Holding my face in my hand, I smile at her. Fuck, my face is starting to hurt from the foreign sensation of happiness.
“You don’t say.”
“Wait, you know what really happens?” she scolds.
I click my tongue at her.
“I’ve been around for a while, Love. Of course, I know what you deviants do after midnight at your little party.”
“And you still said yes,” she says, confused.
“Oh, little cupid, it was part of the reason I said yes,” I reply.
It’s been so long since I’ve been intimate, though I don’t tell her that. Being in a room of cupids isn’t ideal, but having my hands on Love, if she’ll let me, was an added bonus for her silly little revenge.
“I didn’t know how reapers felt about sex. Apparently angels are super prudes, and ghosts can’t touch,” she tells me, and it’s clear she’s trying to gauge my proclivities.
I nod my head. It’s unusual indeed for different veil immortals to intermingle the way we currently are, but maybe it shouldn’t be that way. Carrying the weight of helping souls cross over is a heavy one, and yet being around Love somehow is helping me shoulder the burden effortlessly. If all I’m able to do is help her with her revenge against Eros, I’ll do it with flying colors.
“Are you interested in finding out, Love?” I ask her, and she nods her head. “Tell me, are you a patient cupid?” I tease.
“I can be,” she replies.
She’s eager to please… she’s perfect.
“Be a good little cupid and perhaps you’ll find out at your party.”
“Maybe you’re not as sweet as I thought, Death.” She bites her lip and I smile wider.
My chest warms, and I know there’s a soul that needs to be guided to the afterlife.
“I have to get going. See you soon, Love,” I say, kissing the warm skin of her cheek and teleporting to the soul in need.
The smile she brought to my face doesn’t leave me for the entire day.
It’s Valentine’s Day Eve and I can’t help the sense of hope that fills me. Not just because every shop boasts little pink and red hearts in the window and the humans are expressing their love for one another. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally on team ‘you should show your appreciation every day of the year.’
But the humans? Sometimes they need a little reminder, and that’s why we have Valentine’s Day. It’s also why the cupid presence on this planet is so high.
Humans are sometimes forgetful of how important love truly is. But not right now. I watch with hearts in my own eyes as couples hold hands, gifts are bought, and dinner reservations are set. Ugh, I love it so much it makes my figurative heart patter and my hands twitchy to shoot the whole place up with love and lust arrows.
This Valentine’s Day isn’t just about the humans I push to find their perfect match. No, this Valentine’s Day I feel some hope for myself. I spread so much love around, it’s about time I got my own taste, at the minimum at least some dirty, messy lust.
When I first became a cupid and Eros showed me attention, I felt smitten. I thought I was special for attracting the attention ofsuch a highly regarded cupid that I lost myself somewhere along the way.
When I was with Eros, everything was about Eros. I thought that I was okay with that. That it was okay to make myself smaller because he took up so much space.
I sigh, thinking about it. I’m mad at myself for being so stupid. I’ve only had a few short interactions with Death, but in those short moments, I’ve seen a kindness in him that I never saw in Eros. I feel embarrassed that Eros’ station and beauty blinded me.
I also feel used and preyed upon by Eros, and I simply can’t let that stand. I don’t remember my mortal life, what planet I came from or who I was. He took advantage of a fresh, naive cupid and he needs to learn his lesson.
