I Dream of Disney (Volume II)

Fate & Fatality; Plague & Paradise [Jack Frost X Reader X Pitch Black] Part V

PART V: Boyfriend Jeans & Bubonic Plagues 

The beach: silvery, broad and palm-fringed. 

It was so picturesque that it could only exist on the front page of a Mykonos travel guide. Yet there it was on the edge of the beachside city. Waves were being shaped like sugar glass. Bougainvillaea pollens were wafting on the breeze like fading laughter. The late afternoon skies were pearl-grey and marbled. The purling waves danced like crimson silks and exotic bursts of colour played betwixt the tides: the blushing pink of the newborn sky and the surge of waters at the horizon as piquant and rare as champagne. 

Could there be a more perfect moment, thought Simon Moore, to propose to his girlfriend?

Of course, the whole beachside proposal thing had been done countless times before but his girlfriend was a sucker for romantic moments like this. The concept had come to him during a long, hot shower one dreary morning and before he knew it, he was booking the flights to Mykonos and flipping through engagement ring pamphlets. 

The engagement plan was simple. Simon's girlfriend would be kept busy sipping cucumber-infused and Malibu coconut rum at the hotel while she was pampered to a facial and a hot stone massage. Simon himself would be less privileged. He would be meeting his deep-sea diving guide and trying not to be violently sick as the dodgy little boat was tossed around over the tidal upsurge. All he needed to do was find a pretty shell or clam to put the engagement ring into so his girlfriend could "find" it on the beach and be surprised. 

It was a simple plan but actually standing there made Simon feel slightly sick to his stomach. He was glad that his girlfriend was too busy taking selfies against the backdrop of the setting sun to notice his distress. Patting the pocket of his swimming trunks for the umpteenth time, he felt the weight of the ring within the shell and took a steadying breath. 

"Here I go," Simon said queasily. 

"Here I go!"

Above the sunbleached stone porticos, within the white-blasted hotel walls and shaded beneath the luxurious rooftop cabana that overlooked the beach, the Spirit of Love was preparing for his own special part in Simon Moore's proposal. 

Unslinging his quiver from his shoulder, the spirit unpacked his equipment out onto the bamboo furniture. Painstakingly, he separated the arrows based on the fletching (the gold-tipped arrows had fletching crafted from flamingo feathers; the lead-tipped arrows had swan-feather fletching). The Spirit of Love chuckled to himself as he remembered the time he accidentally used the lead-tipped arrow on a couple he had been tasked to shoot. 

Then he sobered.

"Brangelina!" He sniffed unhappily, "This one's for you!"

Kneeling at the spot on the very end of the balcony, shaded by a length of satin from the gazebo, he aimed his bow at the happy couple. The arrowhead was much simpler than it had once been in the Romantic Period: instead of being solid gold, it was only gold-tipped (sadly commiserating how short-lived some romances now were) and etched with the fleur-de-lis. Training his expert eye on the pair of lovers, he felt his power thrumming and singing through his bloodstream. 

The Deity of Love smiled. Simon Moore had just casually pointed out the cowrie shell he went deep-sea diving for and was now lightly persuading his girlfriend to give up the selfies and take a look at it. The girlfriend brightened at the sight of the beautiful speckled cowrie shell. 

While Simon was gazing lovingly at his future wife who had knelt in the sand, the Spirit of Love nocked an arrow and trained it on the human man's chest. On a gentle exhale, he released the arrow.