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Cupid's Bug

A/N: This was a submission to the Millennial Cupid Contest hosted by cupid, TeenFiction and ChickLit. The prompt was to show how Cupid exists in the age of digital love where even he has to learn the ways of Snapchat and Tinder.

Update (June 6, 2018): This story has received the first place in the Millennial Cupid Contest. It's absolutely, unbelievably amazing! Thank you so much to the contest organisers and all the readers who enjoyed my story. Thanks a lot! <3

I hope you will enjoy this short story. Thank you for reading! :)

Cupid's Bug

(Genre: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy)

Cupid's Bug activated.

His phone chimed, tugging the left corner of his mouth upward into a tantalizing smirk. Lying on his back on the black monstrosity he called a bike, he pulled out his iPhone 8 Plus, space gray of course. He was content in clicking the toes of his black high-tops together as he whiled away the time with his eyes closed. However, now was no time for leisure. The fun was about to begin.

With a movement quicker than human eyes could anticipate, he straddled his bike, pressing a forefinger on the names of his most recent targets. The high tech Wristbow adorning his wrist and dorsum barely hindered his movements. The sleek weapon had become an extension of his Roman god body.

Carly and Daniel

Status: Looking for matches on Tinder.

The words reflected back on the screen made his eyes roll sideways and his smirk to widen. People often wondered how easy it had become to find love in the digital age. Well, what they didn't know was that it had become equally as easy to match them. All it took was arranging one perfect snap, one follow request, or one right swipe and tada! His job was done! All that was left to do was to monitor their interactions.

Though, that wasn't always the case. Not when his matches fell under the 'opposites-attract' category. Those were trickier. The witless humans had no idea what their actual type was. The fools often ended up passing upon the company they would really enjoy.

Just like his current targets: Carly and Daniel.

Carly was your around-the-corner-fashionista who wanted to end up with a model-douchebag. Daniel blended into the crowd and wanted someone who could blend in with him. What they didn't understand was that all they needed was each other. Daniel to help Carly blend in and Carly to help Daniel stand out. Their life together would be full of entertaining squabbles and devoted commitments. It was all mapped out in front of him; the only thing left to do was to keep them from swiping left.

That's where his Cupid's Bugs came in. Delightfully sleek and undiscoverable technology that the humankind had no access to. Arrows to their hearts were now replaced by bugs to their phones.

Opening Carly's Tinder app, he swiped right on Daniel's profile. He then repeated the same for Carly from Daniel's Tinder. His two targets attempted to undo his action, only their devices were controlled by his bugs now.

He smirked, shaking his head at the screen. "Rough start, huh?" he muttered to himself as Carly and Daniel discussed how their Tinder was probably broken and how the other wasn't their type. While the two millennials did their best to give each other no chance, he smirked and accepted their challenge. He guessed he probably had five minutes before it would be too late for Carly and Daniel. Five minutes to learn all about the two twenty-somethings and find that one thing they both could truly connect on.

This challenge was proving tougher than he would have liked to admit. Carly's Facebook, Carly's Instagram, Carly's Twitter. Daniel's Facebook, Daniel's Instagram, Daniel's Twitter. He had scrounged every bit of information available about the two millennials, though found nothing they could bond over. Notifications on his phone from the bugs showed how the conversation had turned into a Rude Comebacks Fest, heading further downhill by the second.

"Come on, come on now. You both matched, there has to be something you both share a deep love for!" he whispered, squinting at his screen as he finally found that one little detail hidden deep in the comments section of a closed Facebook group. "Voila!" He grinned, switching back to their chat. Hitting backspace, he deleted the message Daniel had typed, freezing his phone to avoid any slips. Instead, keeping up with the tone of their quarrel, he typed the message: People like you are the reason I prefer plants more.

Carly stopped typing. A short pause. He grinned, tapping his fingers on the handle of his bike.

Carly: You're into gardening?

"And that's how it's done!" he exclaimed, knowing he had hit the right nail. Both shared a passion for gardening but had no one in their lives to share it with. He relaxed back, watching the tone of their conversation take a 360-degree turn. When the couple fixed a meeting, he withdrew from their chat, feeling quite proud of himself. "Yet another match made right."

He looked up, just in time to see the scowling twenty-eight year old Gina walk out of her house, her phone pressed to her ear. The workaholic woman was his next target. Having already paid a visit to her match, an architect and mother of two, he was now ready to send another one of his bugs fly, toward Gina this time.

He lifted his right wrist up, aiming it at Gina's phone as she stopped to wait for a taxi. Closing one eye for a better aim, he moved down the trigger with his thumb, watching a palm-sized black arrow whiz through the air. The circular, flat end of the arrow connected with Gina's phone for a second then vanished into thin air, just as a taxi pulled up and Gina slid in.

His phone chimed. Instead of pulling it out, he smirked and kickstarted his bike, whizzing through the streets at the speed of his arrows. Without needing to glance at his screen, he knew the words that would be reflected back from it.

Cupid's Bug activated.

---- The End. ----

What did you think of this millennial cupid? Fascinating job, though, am I right? 

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