Henry just dug a deeper grave for himself.  

He’s pretty sure that driving her home is not going to help him find a loophole. When he woke up that morning, Amber was still in his arms and he didn’t even get a chance to let that sink in because Jackson and Joonyoung, who was planning to pull a prank on him, opened the tent and saw them in that position. Joonyoung had snorted and told Jackson to take a picture and that bastard really took out his phone and took one. After breakfast, the two hastily packed their stuff, giving the tent back to Amber before waving goodbye, giving Henry a knowing smile which he rolled his eyes at. 

“Thanks for driving me home.” Amber says from the passenger seat, drumming her fingers against her lap as Bruno Mars plays in the car. “Kenzie cancelled last minute.”

“Well, I couldn’t leave my drummer out in the mountains.” Henry manages to joke. He’s surprised he still has the capacity to do that. 

Amber chuckles. “Yeah, because we all know how hard it is to find someone as good as I am.” 

“Wow, you’re only a month in and you’re already cocky.” Henry grins. 

Amber flips her imaginary long hair and laughs. “Oh you turn right from here.” 

Henry nods and follows her directions until she makes him stop in front of an apartment building - the only one in that block, it seems. He helps her with her stuff amidst her protests and convinces himself that it still doesn’t have anything to do with the arrow. It wasn’t really effective. 

“Well, here’s my stop.” Amber says once they reach her unit, pointing on the door with a silver twenty one on it. She reaches for her stuff just as the door opens and a girl with long brown hair greets them with a wide smile. 

“Hey,” she greets, smiling at Amber. “I thought I heard your voice.” Her eyes land on Henry and she stops for a moment, startled. 

“Oh right,” Amber says. “Henry, this is my roommate, Ailee.”

“Oh my god, you’re the lead singer of the band!” Ailee says, obviously trying to keep her excitement at bay. 

“Hi.” Henry smiles curtly, giving her a small wave. 

“Do you want some drinks?” Amber offers, pointing towards her apartment. “Water? Coffee?”

Henry shakes his head and gives Amber’s bags back to her. “I should go. I’m actually expecting someone at home.” (His mother. He’s sure she’d be there already, arms crossed on her chest, sporting a scowl.)

“Oh, well, thanks for bringing me home.” Amber smiles and Ailee slightly nudges her with her elbow. “And sorry for making your arm numb.” 

“It’s fine. For both cases.” Henry chuckles. “I have to go. It was nice meeting you, Ailee.”

Ailee nods excitedly. “You, too!” Amber holds her by the arm to keep her from bouncing on the balls of her feet. 

“I’ll see you at rehearsals, Amber.” 

He waves them goodbye and he makes a dash to his car, hurrying home. The longer he makes his mother wait, the angrier she will be. When he finally parks his car, he immediately grabs his stuff from the trunk and runs to the elevator. He probably looks suspicious from the security cameras but he has other things to worry about like his mother unleashing hell on him. She’s worse than Sungmin when she’s mad and he’s the King of the Underworld. 

He opens the door to his apartment and sure enough, his mother is seated on the couch, glaring at him as he enters. 

“Hi, mom.” He says cautiously, nervously smiling as he approaches her. Qian continues to glare and he just braces himself.

“Eros,” Qian growls and Henry stops just a few inches away. “Hurting yourself with your own arrow…”

“Stupid, I know!” Henry immediately says in defense. “But it was an accident.” He looks down, lips forming a pout and he suddenly feels like a child again, back when his mother used to get mad at him for constantly fighting with Seungri. 

He hears his mother sigh. “Sit.” 

Qian pats the space next to him and Henry cautiously goes over to the couch, inching away when he gets too close. 

“Maybe there could be some sort of loophole?” He asks expectantly.

“There is no loophole. I talked to The Fates and whichever path you take, you’ll always gonna end up hurting yourself and falling in love with her.” 

“But I don’t want to! I wanna go back to Olympus!” Henry knows he’s borderline whining but he doesn’t care. He wants to go home. The mortal world is nice but he doesn’t belong there. 

Qian sighs again, shifting to face her son and holds him by the shoulders. Henry feels bad because she looks tired. “I know. We just got to wait it out and see what happens since The Fates won’t tell me. I’m doing whatever it takes to get you home but in the meantime, don’t do another stupid thing. Take care of your arrows, make sure she doesn’t get shot or hurt herself with them.”

“What do my arrows have to do with her?”

Qian squeezes his shoulder. “If she gets shot and you’re the first one she sees, she’s gonna fall for you. And if you’re in love with her and she’s in love with you, do you really think you’d even want to go back home? You think you’re going to be okay with you being up in Olympus while she’s here in the mortal world?

When Henry was two years into being banished in the mortal world, he started thinking that maybe being there wasn’t that bad. After all, his mom still visits and Mark takes every opportunity he has to cling to him and he lives a very comfortable life there. But never going back to Olympus is something he’d never even consider. It was never an option even though Siwon is taking his sweet time with his punishment, he knows that he’d go back, one way or another. 

“.”

“ is right.” Qian sighs once again. “Well, I have to go back. Geng is visiting tonight.”

Henry instantly brightens up at the mention of his father. “Tell him to visit me!”

Qian snorted and pats him on the cheek. “I called dibs.”

Henry pouts and nods reluctantly. His father is never really around Olympus that much. The God of War would rather stay where there’s not much people or with Zhou Mi. He used to be full of vigor and passion when he was in his youth but now, he grew tired of it and prefers solitary confinement which Henry thinks is really ironic. They were never really close since he’s not around much but a father is still a father. 

“Alright,” Qian says, chuckling. “I’ll tell him you said hi.”

Henry smiles. “Fine. I get dibs on his next visit though, okay?”

“I’ll tell him that, too.” Qian laughs. “Goodnight, Eros.”

“Goodnight, mom.” 

Qian gives him a kiss on the forehead before going back in the painting and Henry watches until it becomes still. Henry wishes he could come with her. He’s gonna go back to Olympus. He desperately has to. 

“How’s my favorite band doing?” Kenzie smiles, opening the door to the waiting room. They’re waiting to be interviewed for a radio show and Jackson and Joonyoung had spent a good ten minutes teasing him about Amber when she’s only a few feet away. 

“I bought coffee.” He says, placing the to go cups on the center table. “Of course, a milk tea for our lovely lady.” 

Amber grins and takes the drink from him. “Thanks.”

“Guys, you’re on in about twelve minutes.” One of the staff announces as he peeks at their door, smiling. Kenzie nods and thanks him.

“I gotta go to the bathroom.” Jackson says, standing up. 

“Your shoe is untied, dumbo.” Joonyoung snorts.

Jackson looks down and chuckles. “Oh.” 

He bends down to ties his shoe and when he straightens up, he accidentally bumps into Amber’s hand who had just stood up to take a call, spilling milk tea on her shirt. Amber gasps and stares at Jackson in horror while the latter screams. 

“OH MY GOD I’M SORRY!” 

“Jackson!” Kenzie exclaims, giving Jackson an incredulous look. 

“I’m sorry!” Jackson exclaims again, grabbing a handful of tissues and handing them to Amber who was trying her best to make the stain at least not noticeable. Joonyoung sighs and rolls his eyes at Jackson. 

“We have about nine minutes til we go in. Does anyone have an extra shirt?” Kenzie asks, looking around the room for help. 

Henry finally stands up and takes off his hoodie, handing it to Amber, seeing the stain won’t come off anytime soon and Jackson is close to having a heart attack. 

“Thanks.” Amber smiles at him, relieved. Henry nods, coughing as he looks away, pretending that his ears aren’t pink. She puts the hoodie over her shirt, hair messing up as her head comes out. Henry chuckles and before he knows it, he’s reaching out and tangling his fingers through her hair, trying to fix it. Amber seems surprised at first but eventually grins, thanking him as she takes over fixing her hair. Henry clears his throat, ears still pink and sits back down on the couch. He catches Jackson snickering behind his hand. 

“Don’t you have to go to the bathroom?” 

The radio show went well, although Henry’s pretty sure he zoned out for a good quarter of it because he was distracted with Amber wearing his clothes. He tries not to think about how good she looks in it but he missed the radio host asking him about their upcoming album and Joonyoung had to elbow him (a little bit too hard, if you ask him) to snap him out of it. 

It didn’t come as a surprise when Joonyoung cornered him at the dressing room after the radio show, Jackson trailing along behind him and equal mischievous grins on their faces. Amber is in the bathroom and Kenzie is still talking to some staff, therefore giving them the liberty to torture him.

“So Henry, you like Amber, don’t you?” Joonyoung cuts to the chase.

Henry feigns innocence, clearing his throat and pretending to be interested in the magazine he’s reading. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on, Henry, don’t tell that lie.” Joonyoung grabs the magazine and throws it to Jackson. 

“I’m not lying!” Henry’s voice goes an octave higher and he clears his throat before repeating himself. “It’s not a lie.”

“Henry, we’ve known each other for five years and you’ve never paid attention to any girl ever. Then Amber came and suddenly you can’t function normally.” 

“T-That’s not true.”

Jackson snorts from behind Joonyoung. “Dude.”

“Come on,” Joonyoung punches him lightly on the shoulder. “Even Jackson admitted that he had a crush on her the first time they met.”

“It’s true.” Jackson agrees with a shrug. Henry fights the urge to roll his eyes. 

“Um, what are you guys doing?” 

The three from the couch look up and find Amber on the doorway, eyebrows raised in inquiry. Henry pushed Joonyoung away from his face (Joonyoung snorts because that pretty much confirms what he’s trying to get out of him). 

“We were just,” Henry gestures vaguely between the three of them and he sees Joonyoung and Jackson snickering from the corner of his eye. He sighs. “Talking.” 

“It’s probably best not to know.” Amber laughs. 

“Probably.”

“Oh right. When are we going to shoot some arrows?”

“What?”

“You promised that you’ll teach me archery, right?” Amber squints at him. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

. He did. 

“No, no, no, no. I promise I didn’t!”

“Then, are you free on Friday?”

Henry wants to say no because more time spent with her means more time he’ll spend convincing himself to resist falling more stupidly in love with her. And that’s not how he want to spend his Friday. 

“Yeah,” he agrees, albeit, reluctantly. “I think I am.”

Amber grins and pats his shoulder. “Great! I’ll see you then. Around 4-ish?”

Henry just nods and she grins again before her phone starts ringing and she steps out of the room to take the call. He sighs and slumps down the couch, head in his hands and suddenly having the urge to scream.

“A date? Nice.” Joonyoung chides, sitting next to Henry. The latter looks up from his hands, glaring. 

“Shut up.” 

“So this is not a date?”

“No.” 

“You’ve spent almost ten minutes fixing your hair in front of the mirror.” 

Henry looks up from his reflection to glare at Mark who’s lounging comfortably in his couch. “What are you even doing here?”

“Babysitting your , what else?” Mark shrugs, fiddling with the fur covered pillow. “On Qian’s orders so don’t complain.”

“I’d be fine. Go back home.” 

“You say that every time you get into trouble.” Mark picks up a golden arrow from the quiver and Henry is quick to snatch it from him, giving him a warning look before putting it back. 

“Fine. Whatever.” Henry sighs. “Does my hair look okay?”

Mark holds up an okay sign, grinning. “I’m sure your date would love it.”

“It’s not a date!” Henry says defensively, putting his non-magical quiver on his back and gathering the rest of his equipment before checking his pockets for his keys. When it wasn’t there, he puts his stuff down and goes back to his bedroom. Mark eyes the quiver of golden arrow on the couch, a mischievous grin on his lips. He quickly takes a golden arrow and puts it sneakily with the non-magical ones, making sure that Henry doesn’t notice. 

Henry returns to the living room with keys on hand, taking a look at himself on the mirror one last time before grabbing his things once again. Mark keeps his eyes on the golden arrow. 

“Well, if you’re gonna come with me, make sure she doesn’t see you.” He warns. 

Mark does a mock salute, grinning, before turning himself into a beetle, nestling himself on Henry’s backpack. Henry sighs before getting out of the apartment, the slightest of bounce on his steps. 

When he arrived at the archery range, Amber is already there, clearly excited and already has her full gear on. He could see her eyes lighting up when he sees her and waves excitedly. Henry couldn’t help but grin as he approaches her. 

“Did you wait long?” He asks. 

Amber shakes her head. “I arrived like almost ten minutes ago.” She punches Henry’s shoulder excitedly. “Come on, let’s do this!”

He chuckles and follows her inside, putting his bag down on one of the benches in the clearing that they’re gonna practice in. Seeing that she’s already in full gear, he wastes no time in putting on his own as Amber mimics what she sees from the people practicing next to them. He was tying his shoes when Amber said something that makes his stomach drop. 

“Hey, you brought your special arrow.”

Henry stops moving and feels a cold sweat run down his forehead. That’s not what he thinks it is, right? 

“What arrow?” Henry hopes to whoever’s watching over him now to please not let it be what he thinks it is.

“Your golden a-- ow!”

He turns around and true enough, there, in Amber’s hand is a golden arrow and there’s already a speck of blood coming out of her finger. . 

“Amber, close your eyes!” 

Amber is so startled by his scream that she just obliges and closes her eyes. At this point, people were starting to stare but Henry ignores them and rushes to her, panicking. Mark chooses this opportunity to change back into his human form, grinning while feigning innocence. 

“Um, why do I have to close my eyes again?” Amber asks and Henry, with great uncertainty, takes her face in his hands, making sure that she really can’t see him.

“Just...just don’t open them for a while, okay?”

“You’re not gonna do something weird, are you?”

“No no no, just keep it close.” Henry looks at Mark in panic. The latter just shrugs. 

‘Get help!’ Henry mouths at him.

“You know that no amount of help can reverse the power of the arrow, right?” Mark says, not bothering to lower his voice. Mortals can’t hear him anyways. 

Henry sighs irritably at him before turning his attention back to Amber. “Um, does it hurt?”

Amber snorts. “I just got pricked, it’s not that big of a deal. Can I open my eyes now?”

“No, not yet!” 

But to his horror, Amber opens her eyes and met his and Henry’s world just grinds into a halt as he watches them dilate, his heart beating a mile an hour. Amber blinks a few times and Henry thinks that maybe the arrow didn’t have that much of an effect on her but the littlest flash of hope in him shatters when she keeps her eyes trained on him, a tinge of red coloring her cheeks. 

“Hi.” Amber says almost breathlessly.

Oh this is bad. 

hi!!!!! i'm back!!!!

was gonna update last week but you guys know what happened and i just wasn't feeling very well but here it is!