Chapter Text
He’s not real to the humans that he sees daily. They don’t see him, not when he’s working , when the bow is aiming, or even when he simply doesn’t want to be seen. In the first two cases, it’s for the best. There are stories that he heard enough of, tales of those before him who revealed themselves to disastrous consequences. Cupids in the past who got arrested or shot at because people saw them as a threat, those who got locked up for insanity.
So, like other supernatural beings, Derek stays hidden. Before, when his family was still alive, they had times when they were just regular members of the world around them. Most Cupids do have lives that aren’t what their calling dictates, albeit a little more erratic than people with other jobs would have. When the bow calls, there’s no getting out of it, and they have to follow it wherever it takes them.
That was how he lost Laura. A call of the bow that she got at an inopportune time, and a hunter who didn’t know of their kind. She’d been in love with him, almost enough to reveal her secrets. Derek wonders sometimes if she should have, or if she’d have been better off staying away from him altogether.
“Cupids can find love too, Der-bear.”
He didn’t believe her then, and he still doesn’t think it’s true. Doesn’t want to think it is, despite the length of string around his wrist.
It’s been there as long as he can remember. His Mom mentioned it to him when she held the bow, Peter used it as a trick to lead Derek’s then-girlfriend Paige into a deadly trap, Laura tried to tell him it means that there’s hope of love for him.
When the bow materialised in Derek’s hands, it was the last thing he thought of. It meant nothing in comparison with the knowledge that for him to suddenly be the one with the bow, something had to have happened to Laura. The only other way for the responsibility to change hands was if someone found their own match. It was unusual that someone with a string lit up bright red with the connection to their soulmate would keep up with the Cupid duties.
The only one he remembers was his Mom, who refused -- rightly, as it was proven later on -- to keep it instead of passing it on to the next person. Or rather, she did, for a short time, and it was enough for Derek’s uncle to cause devastation. After Paige’s death, Talia stripped Peter of the bow, and of the ability to ever have it again.
When Derek first got the bow, it was already humming, and he had no other choice but to follow its lead. As time went on, he carried out the matches as the bow required, but because he wasn’t meant to be in charge of it, not only did he not think he did that good a job, he also didn’t want to do it. Unfortunately, by then most of his family was gone, and short of passing on the responsibility to someone he didn’t know, he was the only one who could keep it.
Laura was good at it.
It’s a thought he has often, and it always fills his heart with sadness. He misses his family, his big sister, and when he overhears whispers from other supernatural beings about his failures, he feels even more alone.
Some days it’s made worse by the crowds around him who are oblivious to the man with the bow in his unsteady hands. Sure, he can be visible to humans, but only without the equipment, and only when he’s not on assignment. That only happens rarely, because when Derek is not out to shoot a specific arrow, he stays at home. But some days he lingers in places after he’s finished the current assignment, mostly only because he can’t get away easily enough. The glamour that the bow gives him fades away after a while, and if he’s in a particularly crowded area, it’s not easy to just rush out.
Which is how he ends up at a lacrosse game of the local high school one day. The arrows he shot have connected the local Sheriff and a smiling dark-haired woman who seems to be cheering for a boy on the field that Derek vaguely recognises. It takes a moment before he remembers that the boy is part of the triad that was created only a few days earlier in the school’s parking lot.
Derek, out of curiosity, searches the audience for the other two. Like he’s expecting, he finds them sitting close to each other nearby, the girl holding a banner with the name McCall, the boy looking like he wants to be just about anywhere else but at the game. When the one playing ends up on the bench, Derek follows the movement and notices the glances and soft smiles between the three.
It happens when he looks at the boy sitting right next to McCall on the bench. Derek’s eyes slide over in an attempt to not get caught staring, but instead of avoiding everyone’s gaze, his eyes meet whiskey brown ones that are looking at him with curiosity.
“Crap,” Derek mutters, and thinks he should look away a little too late.
Before he can do anything about getting caught, there’s a buzz on his wrist and then on his back where the still invisible bow starts coming to life. There are rules, Derek knows that while he’s being watched he won’t be able to use it, and won’t be able to hide behind its glamour.
But he also knows what the buzzing on his wrist means without looking down on it. He knows that the string that’s been dormant for years has come to life, and is turning blood red while he’s still looking at the boy on the bench.