Chapter Text
Arthur may have been a cupid for thousands of years and a human now for a few months, but there was some things he didn’t understand of the human culture.
“You say that humans enjoy doing challenges like this?” Arthur asked the Pepper sisters.
“Uh huh!” Cayenne said with a smile.
“We do it all the time so it proves that we’re tough,” Jeanette added.
“I don’t know if I like it,” Arthur hummed. It seemed pretty dangerous. Hell, the human doing the video even warned them that no one under eighteen should try it.
“Oh come on Arthur, I didn’t know that cupid’s are such sissies,” Fatali smirked.
“I’m not a sissy!” Arthur said, knowing that if he still had his wings they would puff up in anger at the small insult.
“Then try it,” the sisters said in unison.
The video had ended by then but Arthur knew that they caught them in their spicy web.
“All right, but I’m not using a knife at first,” Arthur said.
That’s how Arthur got in really big trouble by Lewis, Vivi, and Uncle Lance. After becoming a human, Arthur had to get a job. He refused to be a freeloader even though Lewis and Vivi said it was fine by them.
So Uncle Lance went through his connections and got it to where Arthur was able to legally work in the country along with a small background with a believable history. After that, he hired Arthur as an apprentice. Sure, human standards, he wasn’t making much, but since angels never were paid it was much more money than he had ever earned himself.
To practice this dangerous challenge first, when Arthur had some spare time he would flip some tool or softly hum the song of the challenge. It took him a long time but when he was comfortable to try the challenge, he did so in private.
When he was confident, he only showed the Pepper sisters which they helped him hide his bleeding hands (because no matter what, he wasn’t going out of the challenge without a bit of blood).
Soon, he started to do the challenge when he was bored with a small knife his uncle had him carry with him. Sure, he cut his hands and bled but compared to when he lost his wings, the pain was nothing.
One day, Arthur was sitting in the break room of his uncle’s workshop. He was suppose to be on break but he knew really that his uncle was swapped and while Arthur showed some promise, it was still too dangerous for him to be helping out without some sort of supervision.
He was bored out of his mind and kept tipping the chair he was on onto two of its leg. Thinking nothing of it, he pulled out the small black knife with silver latin words etched into out of it’s sheath. He held it out by its hilt at first and then threw it up in the air, making sure it would do a single circle. He then began to sing a simple tune with a slow beat as the knife did it’s single spun.
“Oh I like to flip my knife, flip it in the air,
where will it land, well I really don't care,
cause there's blood on the knife,
there's blood on the blade,
I bet you probably think that I'm afraid.”
After that last line, he began the next lyrics but as soon as he said twice the first time, he had the knife that he was throwing make two spins instead of one. Like the song too, it felt kind of nice, at least compared to the slower tempo.
“When I flip my knife once,
Flip my knife twice,
When I flip it two times, well it feels kinda nice,
but there's blood on the knife,
There's blood on the blade,
I bet you probably think that I'm afraid.”
The next beat, it had him flip once in the beginning, twice when said twice once more but three times when it come to it. Now he had to throw it a bit higher in the air because of the need for it and because of it, he got his first cut on his hand. By this time, he has been doing this simple challenge for months so he barely flinches as his focus was solely on the knife, and not the pain it brought.
“When I flip my knife once,
Flip my knife twice,
I flip it three times and I'm fearing for my life,
cause there's blood on the knife,
There's blood on the blade,
I bet you probably think that I'm afraid.”
By the time the last of the lyrics came, Arthur’s palm was bloody but that made it only a bit more challenging. He continued the song, making sure to throw the knife higher to flip it four times as he ignored everything else.
“When I flip my knife once,
Flip my knife twice,
Flip it three times,
then four, that's right!
There's blood on the knife,
there's blood on the bl-”
“ARTHUR!!”
The sudden angry yell that came from Lance made Arthur loose his concentration. He pushed his legs in a reflex but that had him fall onto the ground, on his back, hard. That wasn’t even the worst of it. Just because Arthur’s hand wasn’t there to catch the blade, that didn’t mean that the knife defied gravity and stayed safely away. It instead kept circling down before it hit the concrete floor but not without giving Arthur a new cut on his leg too.
“What in God’s name are you doing?” Lance demanded as he went for the medical kit, seeing the bleeding hand.
“Um, doing the knife flip challenge,” Arthur said as he slowly slid out of the chair to sit on the floor.
“Why the fffffff-fudge are you doing that?” Lance asked. Arthur felt a bit grateful that his uncle quickly changed his cuss word for a normal one, not caring for cussing himself.
“Because it’s fun,” Arthur answered truthfully.
Lance glared at Arthur when he got the answer. He took the medical kit with him to his nephew and roughly grabbed Arthur’s bleeding hand. Ignoring Arthur’s small protest, he grabbed the peroxide and just dumped it onto Arthur’s hand.
“OW! OW! OW!” the burn of the medicine going into his wounds hurt much worse than how he got them. “Uncle Lance! That hurts! Stop!”
“Good!” Lance huffed but he did stop pouring the medicine on him. He held onto Arthur’s hand were less of the wounds were in a tight grip so that Arthur couldn’t try to wipe the liquid away like he wanted. “I hope it hurts enough to where you won’t do this kind of shit again.”
“Language Lance, and it doesn’t matter. The game is harmless,” Arthur huffed.
“Harmless?” Lance growled. He grabbed Arthur’s hand and shoved into his nephew’s face, showing the damage the current game caused him. “You call this harmless?”
“They’re just small cuts!” Arthur argued back.
“No, they’re not. They are wounds that you made yourself with a tool I gave to protect yourself, not harm you.”
Lance then let Arthur’s wrist go, allowing the other to wipe the hand on his pants. He sat on Arthur’s injured leg so he wouldn’t jerk it away as he put some peroxide on the wound there. As Arthur hissed in the renewed pain, Lance grabbed medical tape, small goths, and a bandage to wrap around his hand to make sure that Arthur didn’t play with the medical supplies.
“Uncle Lance, you can’t get through that game without some blood. Besides, you were the one pushing me to act more human and I’m finally doing it!”
“I asked you to act more like a sensible human being to blend in, not make you see the death angels any sooner than you have to,” Lance growled. “Have you even told Lewis and Vivi about this ‘game’ that you play?”
“No! They would be upset if they saw me bleeding,” Arthur said as he tried to keep still for Lance.
“That was your first flag on not doing this game then,” Lance huffed as he got the cuts bandaged up and was now beginning to wrap it.
Arthur stayed silent after that, finally seeing what Lance was saying. Sure, he was iffy about doing the challenge before he even did. Maybe, just maybe he shouldn’t have.
“You're done,” Lance huffed. He got up from the ground and began to gather his spread out supplies. “Go into the office, you’re done with work today.”
“Hey! No! I can still work,” Arthur protested.
“Not with that hand. I’m not risking you getting oil in your blood stream,” Lance growled.
Arthur grumbled a bit but he knew better than to try to fight right now. He got up from the ground, a bit surprised to feel his skin pinch a bit from the tape that held the goth onto his wound on his leg.
“I’m calling Lewis to come pick you up,” Lance said.
“Okay,” Arthur said softly, thinking nothing of it at first as he grabbed his fallen knife. Arthur didn’t know how to drive and so Lewis or Vivi had to drive him to work and back.
What he didn’t expect to see was Lewis barely turning off the car when he parked as he jumped out of his family van. He ran inside the waiting room near the office where Arthur was waiting. Without even saying anything, he grabbed Arthur’s injured hand and saw the bandage.
“Knife, now,” Lewis said firmly.
“Wait, what?” Arthur said in a bit of shock.
“Give me your knife now,” Lewis demanded. “Lance told me how you were doing the damn knife challenge. I’m taking that away.”
“What?!” Arthur practically yelled. “You can’t do that! I need it to protect myself from the demons.”
“Well, until you can prove to me that you understand that the knife is a weapon and not a toy, Vivi and I will be doing the protecting,” Lewis said firmly, leaving no room for an argument.
Arthur stared at Lewis’s face for a while, trying to see a way out of this but Lewis just held out his hand and kept a firm glance. With a frustrated sigh, Arthur bent down to his ankle where the dagger was sheathed and unbinded it with his leg so he can give it to the waiting hand.
Once it was safely tucked away in one of Lewis’s pocket’s, Lance spoke. “Arthur, you’re not allowed to come back until your hand heals. Take this time to reflect on what you did.”
“Whatever,” Arthur said as Lewis led him to the van.
Lewis didn’t speak to Arthur again until they were parked outside of their apartment, making the ride uncomfortable.
“Arthur, why did you do that?” Lewis said.
“To act more human at first, now though because it’s something to do,”Arthur said as he unbuckled himself.
Lewis unbuckled himself and followed Arthur outside in silence but once inside, Arthur gasped as he saw Lewis gathering the knives.
“What are you doing?” Arthur asked.
“Taking all the knives away. What you were doing is a dangerous behavior,” Lewis said.
Feeling hurt, Arthur glared at him. “I know better than to try that again!”
Lewis looked to Arthur and sadly shook his head. “Maybe but I can’t trust you.”
Now hurt and angry, Arthur stormed into the guest room/library as venomous words ached to come out and hurt Lewis the way he hurt him. Arthur didn’t know much about human culture but he did know about love, and he knew that he loved Lewis and the purple giant loved him back but the words that are wanting to come out would almost ruin their relationship.
Arthur sat on the small bed that was in the room for a moment before he decided to lay down. He was angry at himself for doing something so stupid and at Lewis for not trusting him. In his small fit of anger, sleep crept onto him and he was soon in a small black abliss, not taking note of the real word anymore.
When Arthur woke up, the sun was no longer out which Arthur thought it was odd. Sure, he came home in the late afternoon but it shouldn’t be this dark just yet. With a small yawn, he rolled over the bed and saw on the clock, the green lights brightly telling him it was 12:42 PM.
Arthur sat up in shock, odd that he had fallen asleep for roughly seven hours. Feeling a bit bad, he made his way to the door and opened the door to find a note on the floor. Picking it up, he read:
“Arthur,
I’m sorry that I upsetted you but getting the call from Lance telling me that you injured yourself with a knife on purpose scared me. I know that you’re happy with Vivi and me and wouldn’t do anything like suicide but it still scared me. I love you with all my heart and don’t wish to see you hurt. I hope you feel better soon.
Love,
Lewis
P.S. You wouldn’t answer the door when dinner was done so I put your share in the fridge. Please eat soon.”
Arthur sighed and he folded the paper up and put it in his pocket. Food didn’t sound really good right now but that was normal for him. He did feel a bit thirsty so he grabbed a glass of water before slowly opening the door to their shared room.
The room itself wasn’t that big but it was enough for the three of them. Taking most of the room was the California bed at one wall, then the two dressers (one for each for the males) and that barely left them real room to walk around.
In the bed, Vivi was sleeping away but Arthur could tell Lewis was having trouble doing so. Quietly, Arthur walked to the bed and crawled his way to the other.
“Arthur?” Lewis asked in confusion.
“I’m sorry Lewis for making you worry,” Arthur said before Lewis could say much more. “I fell asleep when I entered the other room. But I’m also sorry for making you worry for playing the stupid spinning knife challenge. I don’t want to loose your trust again so I promise to never do something like that again.”
“Thank you,” Lewis said with a smile.
He opened his arms that Arthur gladly cuddled into. He loved cuddling with his lover the most after the years of not being able to touch him even though he wished to.
“I promise not to say such rude things anymore either,” Lewis said.
“Now kiss,” came a small female voice.
Both boys looked over their shoulders and saw Vivi smiling and wiggling her eyebrows at them. “You know you wanna,” she teased.
Arthur laughed softly before giving Lewis a small peck on his lips. While Vivi wasn’t fully satisfied with it, she let it slid. “Okay, now come into your rightful spot cupid,” she said.
Crawling over Lewis, Arthur laid in between both Lewis and Vivi as they cuddled close to him. He smiled, enjoying the feeling of love for hours until he finally was tired enough to sleep once more.