Chapter 18
Toby's POV
The series of thoughts that crossed my mind in under two minutes would probably worry any psychiatrist about my mental health.
At first I wanted to laugh, really really loudly, but I held it back the last second when I saw the utter seriousness in Angel's face. Her eyes were staring right into mine, determination mixed with a little bit of fear that made me question if she was really telling the truth.
But she couldn't be, could she?
I mean, Cupid? Out of all of things, Cupid?
My mom always told me stories about this little grown baby that flew around in diapers shooting arrows at random people, which honestly scared the living shit out of me, and kind of still does, if I'm honest.
But now, even if I was scared, I briefly wondered if I would have preferred for that baby to actually exist so I could evade the fear and pain I could see in my friend's eyes, most probably because of her being a super natural being and all.
The next raging emotion that I felt once the laughter died down, truthfully, was fear.
It's not every day that the cute girl you befriended some time ago turns out to be a mystical being that I thought only existed along with the Greeks. And, if Angel did happen to be Cupid, god it sounded stupid in my head, she ought to have some kind of power, right?
That means that she could kick my ass if I was stupid, which was always.
Great.
And then the disbelief settled in, as I looked into her eyes.
There was no doubt that she was gorgeous, out of this world maybe, but Cupid? A little creature that made people fall in love? How could that even happen.
I don't know if it was her talent at reading me, or my eyes were showing exactly what I was feeling, but I noticed how she lowered her gaze and her shoulders fell down a bit, a sigh escaping her lips. She looked disappointed, which for some reason made my stomach tight up in a knot. I didn't want to upset Angel. She, along with a couple of other people where the only thing that truly mattered to me and I couldn't stand the though of me hurting her.
I swallowed, pursing my lips. My gut was screaming at me to talk about it, find more information before abolishing the idea completely.
Either I lost my mind, or I somehow felt like Angel was too pure to lie to me with something like this.
"Okay. I need you to explain and not judge me if I seem not convinced. Go." I managed to say as I stated bouncing my knee, anxious to know more. Angel looked up, a brief look of surprise flashing through her eyes before I saw the unmistakable look of hope washing over her face.
Her grin nearly made my heart stop. Even if I had no romantic interest on her, I couldn't deny the automatic feeling of warmth Angel gave to me. It was almost addictive, like a natural reward for being her friend. I briefly questioned if her 'being Cupid' had something to do with that.
I sound insane.
"Okay well,-" Her voice cut me off of my thoughts and I looked at her just to see a pointed look in her eyes, her silent way of telling me to stop acting like a two year old and pay attention for more than .02 seconds. I nodded sheepishly.
"The whole deal with Cupid has been going on for millenniums, as far back as the whole of humanity goes. Common beliefs say that he's a he, and that it's just one. But it's not. The first one was a guy, the son of Aphrodite and Mars.
The thing is, Cupid not only was set to help people fall in love, but also find his own soul mate as well. That's the whole point. Once he found her, they had a daughter. Cupid's power was passed down to her, and so on and so forth it was to the first child of Cupid.
It's known that when Cupid can't find it's mate, he, or she, will die. That's when the world has to go on without one long enough for the powers to regenerate and choose another line to be passed down to. That happened to my grand mother, from my father's side. My father was born, the powers were passed down to him, and then, he and my mother had me.
I was still learning the whole thing when he died. When a true soul mate dies, the other half doesn't function properly. My mother turned bitter, Toby. She was desperate without my dad, she still is. But I moved away because I now have this responsibility, and I had to find my mate. And I did. Here. It's Ryder. And I don't know what else to tell you."
There was a long pause of silence as we both thought over what was just said. I was staring at her, but Angel was looking ahead, to the wall, as if she was slowly recollecting memories and putting them back into where they belonged. Stored to remember or to completely forget, I didn't know.
"Do you have... Any uhm... powers? Not powers like x-ray vision or whatever but, you know--"
"I have a couple of things up my sleeve." The playfulness in her voice did something to calm my head down. Thoughts were jumbled together as I tried to process everything, but I convinced myself to go with the flow for a minute or two.
"Well come on then, I wanna see." I grinned down at her.
She looked into my eyes, and I felt something cold wash over me as I saw how her eyes turned from the usual light blue they normally were, to unnaturally bright green, and then a dark violet, going back to the blue they always were.
I felt the smile slip off my face when I slowly realized that no normal human being had the capacity to change the color of their eye balls. "Holy shit." My mutter broke the silence. I fidgeted. How was that even possible.
Was Angel actually some sort of Cupid?
Holy shit.
"Do you... Do you have that bow and stuff?" I struggled to hear my own voice when the next emotion stepped in and settled deep into my body.
Realization.
I watched as she silently nodded and stood up, swiftly leaving the room and me to the silence filling it steadily. I blinked once, twice, running memories of times where I thought she was acting a little weird, getting a little too much attention, seeming too perfect for how humble she was.
"Try not to touch these. I know how you get with new stuff." I suppressed the need to roll my eyes at her constantly implying that I was a man child. I was, but only I could say so, Angel was not invited to do that.
Not that that would stop her but whatever.
I snapped my head up to her as she stood in front, a delicate looking quiver on her hands. Inside, I could see around 50 arrows, each looked like they were handmade, detailed designs running throughout the whole of the wooden body. As if of instinct, I felt a pull towards the objects, and I didn't register that my hand was moving to touch them until Angel yelped and abruptly stepped away.
I shook my head, as if I was just woken up from a dream, and looked at her with wide eyes, her expression mirroring mine. "I--I, Angel that was completely involuntary--"
"I know, Toby. That's also a little rumor that constantly runs around. Humans get attracted to the arrows and bow, fuck if I know why." She grumbled the last part, annoyance seeping into her voice. I hung my head down, a strange feeling of embarrassment washing over me. It's like something deep in me felt ashamed of having that automatic pull to do something that bothered Angel.
And even though it sounded extremely insane, out of this world, and I could hear my brain yelling at me for being such a little kid, I looked into her eyes, looking a the fear, at the hope, and that constant care that she seemed to hold for everyone, and smiled.
I believed her.
I watched as she grinned back at me, her eyes brightening up. She hurriedly placed the quiver on top of the coffee table and lunged at me, wrapping her arms around my neck. I laughed at her are slowly wrapped my arms around her back, kissing the side of her head and closing my eyes.
"Thank you Toby. God, thank you so much." I frowned, confused, but said nothing. I continued to hold her as I could practically feel the happiness bursting inside her. "I never thought," she continued, "I never thought I would see the day where I could trust someone enough to tell them something like this. I thought-- I thought I would have to go through this completely alone and--"
"Shh... It's okay Angel. It's fine. I'll help you with whatever I can, sweet heart. Don't worry." I cut her off, placing a hand on the back of her head and slowly running it through her hair. She sighed, and I felt her nod against my neck.
"You're family now, you man child virgin." She mumbled against me and I couldn't help but laugh, a feeling of pride running through me as I heard her consider me part of her now apparently non existent family. Pulling her closer, I shuffled her and myself around till I was sitting down facing the TV, her head against my shoulder and my hand wrapped around her back.
"Ohana, bitch." I whispered into her ear and grinned as she whacked my arm, setting back and swearing to myself that I'd do anything to take care of the girl that felt like a sister, as if my life depended on it.
***
A/N: AWWW.... AWWWWW.... YAY! I liked writing this because I needed to clearly show Toby's and Angel's friendship. Yes people, friendship. Do not start. Do. Not. I don't allow you to sail that type of ship. And don't look at me like that cutie, I know something of that sort popped into your head.
But really, I love Toby! He's so cute and necessary for Angel to stay grounded. So YAY for trust!
I tried to balance the weird fantasy of this chapter to something that seemed realistic, if you get what I mean. Do tell me if you dig it, pretty one.
And don't worry lovelies, our other hunk of a man will make an appearance rather soon, and we'll see more of that ship, the one that I do allow you to sail. With that one you can go all Captain Jack Sparrow on me, so cheers to that.
Have a good day cuties!
xx