THAT CUPID, LOVELY BANTER
can we js dont straight lying…
Beforetaste: (this is under construction).
CW: a small spoiler for phai’s name
WC: ~800 | FoC | another chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, b1, and b2 | crossposted on my ao3
I’m taking a full year off after this.
Yet, you did not take your eyes off her.
Not at first.
Not when Phainon started talking again—something about tea, or snacks, or whatever normal people did when they had guests over.
Not when she nodded.
Not when she moved further into the apartment like she’d done it a hundred times before.
You hovered near the ceiling instead, arms crossed tighter than before.
Wings fluttering anxiously.
Okay.
Okay. Fine.
Maybe you were just overthinking.
It happens.
It’s been three months with this man. Of course your brain’s a little fried.
Phainon took a step forward.
For a split second—
it felt like someone— no, something else moved with him.
Not behind him like a shadow does.
Overlapping.
You frowned.
Then it was just him again.
“Pixie?”
You flinched.
“What.”
Phainon blinked at your tone. “Do you… want to come down?”
“I am down,” you barked immediately.
You were not.
You were hovering like a suspicious chandelier.
He squinted at you.
“… right.”
He deadpanned you instead.
Then he turned to her again, softer.
“Sit anywhere you like.”
Like she didn’t already know.
Your eye twitched.
She walked past the couch.
Past the table.
Stopped.
Not randomly like a human.
It’s not even hesitant.
Exactly where someone would stop if they already knew the space.
You stared.
… okay.
No.
No, that’s— fine.
That’s still fine.
Fucking fine.
Childhood friend.
Right.
“Do you still keep it there?” she asked, head tilting.
Phainon paused.
“Hm? keep what?”
A small tilt of her head.
“That book.”
Silence.
You blinked.
Phainon blinked.
“… what book?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
Just looked at him.
Still smiling.
The same.
Exactly the same.
You’ve seen this before.
Haven’t you?
No.
You haven’t.
O, child of dream.
Your wings twitched again.
Behind your ribs, something pulled tight—
like a thread being tugged,
from somewhere you couldn’t remember.
Wrong.
Wrong—
wrong?
Or is it?
“… okay,” you muttered under your breath.
Yeah.
No.
You’re not imagining this.
There was—
something about this.
Something familiar.
A guidebook.
“… yeah.”
You frowned.
A second book appeared in your hand.
Different from the Cupid’s Arrow manual.
Heavier.
Unfamiliar.
Wrongly familiar.
You flipped it open.
Nothing.
Just blank structure.
“… huh?”
Then it waited.
That was the worst part.
Like it knew you were going to look.
Like it had already accounted for you looking.
“… stop that,” you muttered.
No response.
Of course.
You turned the page.
Then again.
Same blank page.
Same layout.
Same—
“… okay, that’s not funny anymore.”
Silence.
Too clean for your liking.
Too intentional, and that made it worse.
A page shifted.
Just slightly.
Like it was avoiding your attention.
“… that’s new.”
You turned again.
This time, it turned with you.
Too smoothly.
Like it expected your movement.
Ink flickered.
Not disappearing like a common Daydream’s book.
Not changing like a certain thread of fate.
The ink just… hesitating.
Your wings stiffened.
“… don’t do that.”
You weren’t sure who you were talking to.
Then—
text formed.
Not written.
Not printed.
Remembered.
SITUATION: OBSERVATION
SUBJECT: NEIKOS496 // PHAINON
STATUS: STABLE (not glitching)
SUBJECT: UNKNOWN FEMALE ENTITY // CYRENE
STATUS: RECOGNIZED (as always)
SUBJECT: 08-83
STATUS: …
The line stopped.
Then the ink moved again.
Not like liquid—or even not something from this world.
Like thought trying to decide whether it should exist.
SLOW RESPONSE DETECTED
“… excuse me?”
You frowned.
“You don’t get to decide.”
…
No.
That wasn’t right.
That wasn’t your voice.
It didn’t… feels like you.
“… hey.”
Phainon blinked. “… feel what?”
A pause.
Too long for good.
Too clean— like someone had wiped the moment too carefully.
Like a missing line in a script, a very important one.
The girl was still smiling.
Same curve.
The very same angle.
Wait—
the book turned a page by itself.
Faster this time.
Almost impatient.
And then—
you saw it.
A page already filled.
Not written now.
But before.
WAY before.
SITUATION: SCENE RECORD
LOCATION: NEIKOS496’S RESIDENCE
EVENT: RETURN OF UNKNOWN SUBJECT INSTANCE (recorded)
OUTCOME: STABILITY MAINTAINED
NOTE: 08-83 RESPONSE DELAY DETECTED (chances for bugs: 83%)
“… response delay?”
You didn’t realize you said it out loud.
“… I didn’t delay anything.”
Your voice was sharper now, but you feel like you already said it.
The book flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
don’t ask.
d0n’t—
it corrected itself before you finished reading.
…
It wasn’t text anymore.
It was pressure.
Your wings froze.
“… okay.”
No humor left now.
Just watching.
The book snapped shut.
Not gently, like when your mentor does.
It’s not violently, like the way you supposed to do.
It just… decided.
And on its cover—
one line appeared.
08-83 // EXECUTION STATUS: PENDING
Silence, without any noise physically.
Phainon finally spoke again.
“… Pixie?”
You didn’t answer.
Not yet.
(You said it before you decided whether it was meant to be said).
Aftertaste: something is wrong, but i didnt know from when
Do you?