Love Is Funny That Way (w/ thighhighcrocs)

(How many times do I have to say you're fine? Because I don't blame you, I do the same kinds of things!)

Abbie looked at him, a mix of both confused and frustrated.
"You know that I'd pay for you whether you asked me to or not, and although you paying for me would be nice, I would insist that I at least pay for myself, but I doubt you'd let me do that, so it's pointless for me to deny or insist anything." Abbie shook her head, smirking. "You are impossible. No, guys are impossible."

"Indeed we are." Eros said, gesturing to the money in the barista's hand, which he'd somehow given her without Abbie noticing. "I like to think I'm better looking than most, though. If only thanks to those divine genes." He shot her a wink, accepting their coffees. "Shall we sit?"

(I'm considering inserting Sam into this to cause tension, but I don't want to ruin their date, but I also want to do something other than have a monster interrupt everything. Or we can have something run normally, I don't know.)

Abbie narrowed her eyes at Eros, the corner of her mouth turning upwards in a smile. "Yep. Impossible. You, by flattering me, are also getting on my nerves. It's frustrating, weird, and abnormal in a sense." Abbie said, plopping down in the nearest chair, which happened to be at a table in the middle of the cafe.

((You could totally throw Sam in if you wanted.))

Eros sat down across from Abbie, setting her drink in front of her. "I never once claimed not to be. Quite the opposite, love." He took a sip of his drink, eyes scanning the cafe, part out of habit, and part for what he was about to do next. "Pick any person in here, right now."

Abbie glanced around, her curious eyes skittering across faces and the backs of heads. Her eyes landed on someone, and she almost choked on her coffee. It was Sam, with her mid-length flowy brown hair and her dark blue eyes, piercing almost anyone who gazed into them. Abbie was nervous, but her grip on her coffee showed otherwise.
Dismissing thoughts of Sam, Abbie pointed to a guy to her right. He was tall and had a stocky build, and he seemed to be moving the omlet on his plate back and forth.

Eros frowned as he noticed Abbie's hand tighten around her drink, but as he followed her gaze, his expression softened. He reached out with one hand, placing it on top of the one on her drink. "Alright, watch this." He snapped the fingers of his right hand, and pointed at the man she'd pointed out. Allowing the golden trail of some otherworldly substance to show itself to her took a moment, as he was so used to hiding it. But there it was, luckily connecting him to another person in the cafe, instead of someone incredibly far away.

((Your pick))

Abbie flinched, following the trail to find a brown-haired female looking down at her phone. She wasn't trendy, but nor was she ugly. She wore casual clothes, a mix of purple and black-rimmed glasses, and the tips of her hair were dyed burgundy.
"That's…certainly interesting." Abbie wasn't sure what to do. If she believed him, it would explain a lot, but it seemed too far-fetched. If she didn't believe him, how was she going to explain the previous events logically? "Huh." Abbie seemed dumbfounded.

"This isn't even the best part. Wait here?" Eros was already standing, first slipping over to the guy and talking quietly to him. Then, he made his way to the girl, striking up a conversation that had her laughing in minutes. And already, the other guy seemed smitten.

Eros waved Ryan, the guy he'd been talking with, over. He introduced him to Wendy, the woman, easy charisma oozing off him as they talked. The whole ordeal took maybe seven minutes, and then he was sliding back into his seat, looking incredibly happy. "They've got a date saturday." Gods, he loved this part of the job. Although, something sort of sad flickered behind his eyes.

"Um. Okay, I know that I thought that you did this as a prank, but…am I seeing things? Going crazy?" Abbie wanted to believe that this wasn't real, that she was imagining this fantasy, this unrealistic idea surrounding Eros, but even if she was seeing things, what Eros was telling her was believable. She just didn't know what to and what not to believe.

"You're not going crazy, love." Eros promised, reaching out to gently take her hand. He gave it a squeeze. "I've been doing this for any number of eras." He said, looking around the cafe. "Different environments, but you know."

"Holy crap. So you-you're actually Eros? As in the greek god? Shit." Abbie said, mostly wondrous, a small grin creeping on her face. "How? How am I attracted to a god?"

"The one and only." Eros grinned, tugging his free hand through his hair as he shot her a wink. "And, y'know, I have been told we're incredibly good looking."

Abbie put her hand to her mouth, stifling giggles. When they subsided, she put her hands on the table, her right atop her left.
"Looks aren't everything, you know. I'm mostly attracted to personality, but you exceed in both." Abbie managed a sheepish smile.
"So, before, there were actually things out to get me? Sent by gods? I know I'm somehow important to you, but why would a god want you dead? You're the freaking love god, for goodness' sake! 'Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that'."

"I'm a man of many attributes." Eros joked, waggling his eyebrows. "There were things out to get you, yes." His face darkened a bit as he looked off to the side, scanning the cafe again. This time, it was almost more wary. "Somehow, someone must have found out about me just talking to you, and decided that was a threat. A threat to what, I have no clue."

"Of me knowing some greek mythology? Please, I'm used as a pawn, not a queen, Eros. I shouldn't be that important to the gods." Abbie honestly didn't think-no, wouldn't-think that highly of herself, not to be a god's concern. Yet she was, for some odd reason that she couldn't explain.

"Well, apparently you are. To them. I know you are to me." Eros rubbed circles with his thumb into the palm of her hand. "Abbie, you are no pawn. That much is for sure. You've just chosen to be."

Abbie opened her mouth to protest, but she didn't say anything, shutting her mouth almost instantly. As a blush found its way to her cheeks, Abbie cleared her throat. "Thanks." Her voice was small, but she meant what she said.
Clearing her head, Abbie offered a slight smile. "Could we maybe leave soon? There's someone I want to…avoid. It's not their fault, moreover mine, but…I don't want to confront them yet."
As if on cue, Sam waved her over. "Hey, Abs! What's up?"
Crap. Abbie was considerably more nervous. "I'm doing fine, thanks." Sam smirked, noticing Eros. She stood and walked over, fetching an extra chair to sit in, which she sits backwards in.
"Hey. I'm Samantha, but people call me Sam." She noted to Eros politely, which puzzled Abbie. Usually Sam was reckless and didn't care what people thought of her, unless…oh. Abbie dismissed the thought right away, Sam wouldn't do that! Right?

Eros gave her a polite smile, recognizing the voice. This was the woman who's voice the cyclops had stolen to get to Abbie. "Eros. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sam. I take it you're a friend of Abbie's?" He'd do his best to get Abbie out of there soon, since this was probably the person she was trying to avoid.

Abbie kept a plastered smile on her face, not caring whether anyone could tell it was fake.
"Yeah, we've been friends through…I think Kindergarten?" Sam looked quizzically at Abbie.
"Preschool. At the time, we drew a lot together. Later on, though, I dropped it, but Sam didn't." Abbie told facts, and it eased her. She wasn't ready to talk to Sam alone, maybe not ever when she was used against Abbie, to tease and trick her.
"Speaking of, Abbie I need your help." Sam brought out her sketchbook, flipping to her most recent sketch of a wyvern behind a child, its clawed hand on the boy's shoulders. The child seemed unfazed, looking somewhere below him. "I want to add something to Gio-the kid-that would reflect that he's of wyvern ancestry, but I can't come up with something."
"Not to sound cliche, but maybe a necklace, with the pendant being something related to the boy?" Eros better not tell me that wyverns exist… was the only thought on Abbie's mind. Both that and, Just talk about Sam, not you, just Sam.
"Thanks." Sam jotted down a few notes, putting the book away. "So, I haven't seen you around here before." Sam pointed at Eros, not intending to accuse him. "I think so, at least. You a tourist?"

(Bump)

"Eh, something like that." Eros said, eyeing the drawing for a moment with slight awe. All in all, it was a pretty accurate representation of a wyvern. "My work drags me along a lot, different places. And, well, it brought me here."

"That's really cool! I've wanted to travel the world, but the best thing that could ever happen would be travelling to Europe to visit my dad's side of the family. Specifically London." Sam seemed energetic, and she talked using her hands quite a bit. Abbie only nodded along, not really wanting to bring up anything. Sam begun to talk of the places there, and it seemed that Eros stood corrected on the most talkative person in the room. It was an obvious difference between the two girls, especially when they were together.

Eros listened politely as she talked of places he had been before, although there were a few he had just never bothered getting to. They sat like that for a while, Eros and Abbie listening to Sam talk. She was incredibly talkative, that was for sure. Then Eros looked down at his wrist, at a watch that hadn't been there just a few minutes ago, but that wasn't possible, right? "Oh, shit. I'm extremely sorry, but we really must be going."

"Yeah, we have a concert to attend; we were lucky to get tickets before they sold out. I'll call you later if I'm not busy, okay?" Abbie seemed to lie fluently, probably the result of wanting to avoid Sam asking of what happened recently.
"No problem," was what Sam said, but she thought something was up. She decided not to bother. She had to worry about tests and exams anyway, but she kept her concern for Abbie in the back of her mind. "I'll see you around."
"Sure." Thank god-or, the gods. Whichever it is.

"Let's see if we can make that reservation in time, huh?" Eros said, shooting Abbie a smile as he stood, pulling her up with him. He gave Sam a charming smile, grabbing his drink with his free hand. "It was nice getting to meet you. I hope you're pursuing a career involving art, you are incredible talented."

"Thanks a lot! It was nice meeting you, too!" Sam seemed way too enthusiastic for Abbie to not like it, but Abbie took her chance to leave before Samantha was going to trap them in one of her lengthy stories.
Once they got out of earshot, Abbie sighed with relief. "Thanks. So, does every girl naturally think you're attractive?" Abbie did admit to herself that a smidge of jealousy got to her when Sam was trying to impress him.

Eros blinked, thinking back over the interaction. Oh. "I guess? I am a god, remember?" He pointed to his face, the corner of his mouth quirking up into a lopsided smile. "Divine genes. Plus, I'm the god of love. That's got it's own bullshit."

Abbie couldn't help herself from laughing. "Yep. God bullshit, gotcha. You're still charming and annoying at the same time, but I deal with it." Abbie's thoughts were elsewhere for a while, and it was after a long pause that she spoke.
"Sam seems to be my kryptonite. Besides you. They used her both of the times to get to me, well, not her actually, but illusions of her, if that makes sense."

'You know she loves you, right?" Eros asked, wrapping his arm around her waist to hold her close as they talked. "Platonically, of course, but…she really does."

Abbie nodded. "I know, and it's not like I don't care for her, but she's a bit-besides chatty…easygoing. She's a party animal who doesn't think much of her future. You can tell she wants to be an artist, and she'd be pretty good at it, too, but she doesn't make any steps towards that goal. She's just…not impossible, but disappointing."