Up in Asgard, a woman sat across a long row of pillows which were aligned before an indoor fountain. A fountain of the purest white marble from which poured clearest water, a fountain adorned with the centerpiece of a small cherub: the caricature of her husband.
She was a fairly attractive woman, long, luscious dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes being her two prime attributes. While not the most extravagant figure, she was still healthy and above most average women, especially with such soft skin which was accentuated well by the pale blue toga and dress she wore; the gold left shoulder clasp adorning the symbol of an arrow and heart.
This woman, whom, while living amongst the finery of the gods while immortal, was otherwise still human...
It was a sight that was quite a rarity, to see a human amongst the posh lifestyle that is seemingly reserved for those of Celestial body, but her presence seemed to accentuate the room perfectly. And besides, this woman had every right to be where she was. She was Psyche, wife to the Greek god Eros: the God of Love!
Or as he was better known, 'Cupid'.
It wasn't easy becoming the wife of the Greek God of Love. She had gone through many trials to prove herself worthy after breaking his wish of her not to see his true form... But she had braved many challenges and dangers in Hades for him and succeeded!
And to top it off, they had managed to stay together for the past number of centuries while most gods were still having trouble settling down into a formal married setting.
Still, as Psyche was finding out nowadays, being married to one of the higher Gods of Love wasn't all wine and roses... In modern times it seemed that love was war, and over the course of the past century, Psyche and her husband Eros have had little time to spend together as the God of Love was still trying his best to keep up with the times...
And so, as was her wont in passing the time, Psyche played her harp as she sat there by the water fountain, a gift given to them by their daughter the Goddess Voluptua on her and Eros' 250th wedding anniversary...
But then finally, out of the blue, the sounds of heavy foot steps could be heard echoing down from the main hallway. Stopping her harp playing, Psyche turned her head in the direction and smiled. She could see the tall, strapping winged form of her husband Eros... Who was obviously dead tired and looking like he just went through World War III.
"Welcome home, dear husband," Psyche greeted as she put down her harp. She wasn't sure how to really help him in his field of expertise, but that didn't mean she couldn't give him a smile and bit of hope.
Eros, placing his bow by the corner, let out a deep sigh. Shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts Eros then started taking off his satchel of arrows. "I can't do it anymore... I just can't do it."
"Can't do what?" Psyche asked, sounding curious. "What can you not do?"
Suddenly turning towards his wife, Eros snapped out, "MY JOB, THAT'S WHAT! It... Oh by Father, it's become too much!" Eros stumbled a bit before placing his back against a wall for support. "That boy is going to kill me!"
Psyche blinked her eyes in confusion. "What boy?"
"RANMA SAOTOME!!!" Eros shouted as he started ranting at his wife. "Seriously, it was fun at first, a good challenge and all but now this has gotten WAY TOO complicated..." He slowly pushed himself off of the wall and went over to the large cabinet against a wall further into the room.
Opening up the celestial mini-bar, Eros took out a bottle of wine. "I can't believe how many of my efforts to get that boy's love life sorted out are failing miserably. AND WORSE!" He uncorked the bottle with a corkscrew and started drinking directly from the bottle, rearing his head back and taking a few chugs.
"What's worse?" Psyche asked softly as she stood up from the pillows. With soft footsteps, she went over to her husband, and placing her hand on his back between his wings, she began to gently rub in an effort to ease his aggravation.
"What's worse..." Cupid said as he placed the bottle down atop the liquor cabinet. "Is that I'm falling WAY behind in my other duties! There's still those Masaki, Chiba, Moroboshi, and Urashima guys I need to get a handle of too, not to mention entire groups of women without the right guys!" Eros reared his head upward and screamed, "AND IT'S ALL RANMA'S FAULT!"
Psyche continued to rub his back gently. "It's okay Eros. So you're a little behind. You'll catch up, I know you."
Shaking his head, the God of Love said, "It gets worse, Psyche. You see, my holiday, Valentine's Day, is two weeks away!!! I don't know what I'm going to do I'm so far behind! And if I don't catch up I'll be SO SCREWED!!"
"Hmm..." Psyche considered what her husband was saying. She may not have been the most beautiful, but the reason Eros loved her was for her combination of personality and sharp mind; a rarity for women to have way back when she was still mortal. "You ever think about maybe putting that boy's problems on hold?"
Eros' right eye twitched. Not that he could get mad at his wife, she was only trying to help. "On hold? Psyche, my love... I tried that... AND IT GOT WORSE!" The god of Love threw his hands up into the air. "At one point I had managed to get him down to two steady fiancées and a psycho girl who WANTED to be one before I left for a bit to try and get that Chiba guy on the right track as some weird-haired girl's prince... And when I came back to Ranma, I was greeted to the sight of him suddenly having a cross-dresser in the mix as a THIRD fiancée! I can't just leave that boy alone, it's too dangerous!"
Nodding her head, Psyche considered that. Hmm... How could she help her husband who was obviously so tortured over this? "Well, how about you do this..."
"Do what?" Eros asked curiously. His wife always was the brains of the couple; hell coming up with challenges after she broke a promise to him, he had to go to his sister/mother/ex-wife/whatever Aphrodite for help on that.
Psyche smiled as she suggested, "You bring him up here to help you?"
Eros just STARED at his wife for a few moments in silence. "...Okay, whose ambrosia did you smoke and why aren't you sharing?"
Psyche pouted cutely and lightly whapped her husband's shoulder. "I'm serious! He's making you fall behind, right? Well, why not put him in your shoes for awhile? Learning how to handle love and relationships of others may help him realize how to handle his own problems... And because he'll be helping, this will let you catch up faster and help stabilize your main problem with that mortal."
A stunned Eros blinked his eyes at his wife's suggestion. "...That sounds crazy enough to work..." His eyes widened as rational thought came to him. "Wait, wait no, NO!" He shouted loudly as he began waving his arms frantically. "I can't do that! The boy doesn't know heads or tails about love! I can't just throw him into this!"
"Well..." Psyche started to speak slowly to make sure she had her husband's attention. "You DO have two weeks before Valentine's Day..."
Although he nodded his head, Eros was silent for a moment. Finally looking his wife in the eyes, he slowly spoke. "...You expect me to spend two weeks alone with that kid, teaching him about relationships..."
Nodding her head to her husband's inquiry, Psyche answered, "That, and how to use a bow and arrow."
"I still don't know..." Eros said warily.
"Oh, look down at Midgard!" Psyche shouted over her husband's shoulder. Seeing she had gotten her husband's attention, she pointed towards the fountain. "I think that boy is about to get the rather crazy girl as an official fianc-"
"Okay, OKAY! YOU MADE YOUR POINT!" Eros shouted. "I'M GOING!" As he started to get his bow and arrow again, he turned to his wife and said, "Never EVER joke about stuff like that."
Smiling, all Psyche responded was, "Go get'em, Tiger."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Red Priest of the 17th Order
(Posted Wed, 15 Feb 2006 04:27)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.