Summary: "Until Love has True Love returned and sees once more with his own eyes; I curse you to love in vain and always be despised."
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"Until Love has True Love returned and sees once more with his own eyes; I curse
you to love in vain and always be despised."
With that Aphrodite grabbed her sobbing child and flashed away.
Zeus stared helplessly after her. He hadn't meant to hurt Cupid, but the boy had
caught him with another of his conquests and he couldn't let word get back to
his wife. Especially since she was pregnant and might make his punishment
permanent this time.
Aphrodite had always been one of his favorite gods, not for the reasons everyone
thought but because she seemed to understand that he wasn't just what he showed
everyone else.
She was the youngest of his adopted children, having made a deal with Poseidon
to keep secret Poseidon's indiscretion with a minor earth goddes in exchange for
help with driving out certain creatures that threatened to overwhelm Greece if
they ever escaped the ocean.
Hera of course disliked Aphrodite because she thought Aphrodite was one of
Zeus's bastard children by a sea goddess and because she far outshone Hera in
the looks department, not that Hera would admit to it.
And now he was cursed, but it couldn't be as bad as he thought could it? After
all Hera still loved him even after all the times he'd messed up, and his golden
children Apollo, Athena and Artemis all thought the world of him.
~~~~~~~~ Ten Minutes Earlier ~~~~~~~~~
Zeus had just pulled himself out of the bed of his current favorite mortal and
begun puling on his toga when he heard the flapping of tiny wings and heard
Cupid's childish voice ask "were you guys fighting?"
Whipping around he put a hand over Cupid's eyes. Cupid may have been the god of
Erotic Love but he was still way to young to be seeing this stuff.
"You see nothing." the words tumbled out oddly in his rush to keep himself from
the wrath of 'Dite and Hera.
A rush of power ran through him and down the arm connected to the hand over
Cupid's eyes. It didn't feel like his power, his power felt fizzy and warm. This
power felt like pain and grief.
Cupid screamed.
~~~~~~~~ end flashback ~~~~~~~
Apollo looked at him in disgust as he packed up his things.
"How could you do that father? He was just a child!" Apollo said lowly.
"It wasn't me!" Zeus said, his protest falling on deaf ears.
No matter how many times he told them it wasn't him they never believed him.
His family fell apart that day.
For two hundred years he saw only coldness in the faces he loved and he had no
hope of reprieve. Then, one day, a miracle happened.
Strife, god of Mischeif, was born.
When Hera left the birthing chamber she actually looked at him fondly, like she
had before Hebe was born, before Cupid was hurt. That had been the worst blow,
Hera keeping him from his baby girl, who had come to fear him. But with that one
smile he had felt his heart lightening.
There was Hope after all.
At Strife's presentation he laid on him the strongest blessing he knew and hoped
for the best. With Eris for a mother and being dedicated to the house of War the
child would not have an easy life.
He prayed to the Fates that Strife would be able to undo what had been done. Not
so much for his own sake, but for Cupid's.
~~~~~~~~ Six Years Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hewoo." A soft voice said as Cupid sat crying in his mother's garden. "You
'kay?"
When a tiny hand touched his shoulder, Cupid looked up, expecting to see only
the Aura of this person, like every other person he'd seen for the past two
hundrred years.
Instead he saw a small boy about his physical age, a bit of dirt and blood on
his face, hair wild and uncombed. He was wearing pants that were far too big on
him and a tunic that was far too small. He was the only thing Cupid could see,
everything around him was still the blackness he had grown accustomed to.
"Who're you?" Cupid asked, feeling afffectionate towards the other child for
taking away a bit of the loneliness.
"I'm Strife." The boy said proudly.
"I'm Cupid." Cupid said. "Want to be friends?"
"Yeah!" The other boy said, his whole face lighting up like someone had just
told him his birthday had come early.