Chapter Text
Clint landed quietly on the roof. He followed the guy for more than an hour now and finally he stopped. He folded his wings, stepped to the edge and hunkered down to look at the man. Yes, that was his mark. Loki of Asgard. He pursed his lips, took his bow and searched for the arrow they had given him. It wasn't one of his usual arrows but given that this guy wasn't human he didn't think twice about it. The arrow was heavier, a dark shaft with red and gold fletching and the tip looked vicious for a love arrow. Definitely unusual.
Clint looked at the man down in the dark alley. He had a phone in his hand and talked to someone. Clint furrowed his brows. His mark wasn't human, he didn't need those devices, Clint knew that. Why he used it was over his head but on the other hand, why did he care? He had a job to do.
Slowly the man down in the alley paced and talked rapidly into his phone, gestured with his free hand and his body language said he wasn't in a good mood.
Well, maybe he could change that. A smile crossed his face when he felt the arrow warm up. The other mark was close now and Clint nocked his arrow, aimed and waited another few seconds till he saw the tip starting to glow. He exhaled.
And then he let the arrow fly. He didn't need to look to know that he had hit the man's neck perfectly, he never missed his target. But when he heard a painful scream and a suffocated burble from down in the alley he had to take a look.
“Jupiter's bolts!” He burst out. In all his time as cupid he had never seen anything like this. Usually, when the arrow hits his mark it glowed a few seconds and then disappeared but this arrow, this arrow stuck out of the man's neck, actually visible, and he lay on the ground, held his throat and fucking bled out. He could go down and try to remove the arrow but that wasn't allowed.
If there was one thing even more frowned upon than killing the mark was to let people see them. He touched his bracelet and looked into the sky. “Uhm... help?”
He heard steps from the entrance to the small alley and yes, there was the other mark, Anthony Stark. Apparently he had heard the scream and Loki choking on his own blood and when he realized that there was someone dying he ran over to him.
When Clint heard the flapping of wings behind him he forced himself to avert his eyes from the dying Asgardian and turned around.
“Aww, no,” he muttered when he saw the two figures standing behind him. They both walked over to him, one to his left, one to his right and looked both down into the alley.
“Well, that was good work, Clint,” the man to the right said.
“Will you shut up, Oliver?” Clint grumbled and folded his arms defensively in front of his chest.
“I know, I'm new to this cupid business but I always thought we shouldn't kill them,” the woman to his left said.
“I... I have no idea how this could happen.” He gestured at the two figures beneath the three of them. Stark pressed his hand on the wound to try to stop the bleeding while he dialed with the other hand and he frantically murmured at the bleeding man to hang on and don't give up.
The three cupids heard another set of wings and all three turned to see another woman land beside them.
“I've heard your call. What happened?” she asked and went over to them and looked down as well.
“Clint killed his mark,” Kate said.
“He's not dead,” Clint said and gestured at the men down and Oliver, right beside him, added, “Yet.”
Another man came into the alley. He wore a dark suit and looked at Stark, gestured with his arms while Loki tried to say something but only blood and bubbles came out of his mouth.
“Honestly, I have no idea... it was the arrow! I got a special arrow for this one!” He pointed at the device, still sticking in the man's neck.
“He's right, Katniss, this thing looks unusual,” Kate admitted and Oliver grunted beside him.
“Who gave you this arrow?” Katniss asked and Clint glared at her.
“What do you think? Phil gave it to me. I always get my arrows from Phil.” He sounded a little bit angry now. It wasn't his fault that the arrow did something like that.
“Wait, wait, something happens!” Oliver exclaimed suddenly and all four turned once more to look at the men in the alley. Loki gestured at the arrow and said something but Stark paled and shook his head vehemently.
“They try to remove it,” Katniss stated and Clint furrowed his brows.
“Are they completely nuts? He's going to bleed out when they remove the arrow!” He said and the other three cupids looked at him now with similar expressions on their faces. “Just saying,” he added mumbling.
“He's Asgardian, isn't he?” Kate asked and it was Oliver who nodded now.
“Yes.”
“Don't they have healing powers?” Kate asked again and looked down to see the man with the dark suit run out of the alley as fast as his body volume allowed and come back mere seconds later with a first aid kit in his hands.
Loki's hands were shaking when he guided Stark's hands to the arrow but the human still shook his head, didn't want to remove the arrow but whatever the Asgardian said, after a few more seconds he grabbed the shaft of it and pulled. And nothing happened.
“What the...” Oliver blurted out. “Shouldn't this thing at least be removable?” he glared at Clint. But Clint really had no clue. It was the first time that he had seen an arrow like this and he had no idea how they worked. The man in the suit fiddled nervously with his hands and gestured at the car. But Stark held him back, grabbed the first aid kit and searched for something and then he wrapped a bandage around Loki's neck.
“Does he really think that would help him?” Katniss frowned and Kate shrugged while Clint scratched his head.
“It's probably better than letting him bleed.” Kate said.
“It's just a thin bandage. This can never...” Oliver had started but stopped immediately when all of them heard Stark cry out. “What happened now?”
“He hurt himself with the tip,” Katniss explained and leaned a bit over the edge of the roof. They could see blood on his hand and it dropped onto the bleeding Asgardian, intermingled with Loki's blood.
“Jupiter's beard!” Kate gasped when they saw the arrow starting to glow and disappearing. One moment it was there and the next it was gone. “What was that?”
“I have no idea but it doesn't look good,” Clint's brows furrowed. Loki threw his head back when another thick stream of blood left his throat and frantically he pressed his hands onto the wounds.
“He dies,” Oliver stated.
“No! Look!” Katniss pointed down to see a blue light from Loki's hands, filling the whole alley and the man in his dark suit stepped back till his back hit a wall. Loki convulsed for a second and then... then he rose as if never anything had happened to him. His skin on his throat was undamaged and Tony reached out carefully to touch it. Loki wanted to step back but when he finally looked at the human something happened to his eyes, they lost their greenness and went dark. And then he stepped forward, cupped Tony's face with one hand and his waist with the other and crushed their lips together, not giving a damn that he just ruined Stark's clothes with the blood from his.
“Wow!” Oliver's brows hit his hairline. “I... wow! This was fast.”
“Yeah!” Kate added and Katniss shook her head, slightly confused.
“I didn't expect that,” Clint murmured and hunkered down again, placed his elbows on his knees and watched the two men getting handsy down in the alley. The guy in the suit mumbled something, gestured vaguely in the direction where the car waited and hurried away as fast as possible.
“I guess your job is done, Clint,” Katniss said and pursed her lips when she saw Tony's jacket land on the ground.
“Kate, we're leaving,” Oliver stated and when the woman wanted to protest he just raised a finger to shush her. “The job is done.”
“But...”
“No, we're going back to our job. You can stay and watch as long as you want when you're on your own but as long as I have to train you you do what I say.”
“Yeah, yeah. Fine. Okay, boss man,” she grumbled and the two cupids left. Clint watched over his shoulder to see them fly away and a few seconds later they were out of his sight.
“You should talk to Phil,” Katniss said and looked at Clint now. The noises in the alley got frantic and the two of them definitely didn't want to stay here longer than necessary.
“Yeah, I will do that,” Clint smiled and with a pat on his shoulder Katniss also disappeared. With a sigh he looked down for the last time and he wished he wouldn't have done it because Loki right now had Tony pinned to the wall and...
No, none of that. He folded the arms of his bow, put it in his quiver and turned around and just the moment when he lifted off of the roof he heard a long and hoarse moan from down there. “Well, mission accomplished.” He grinned and headed back to Olympus. He had to have a word with a certain cupid retd. about the use of violent love arrows.