Always Traught

Cupid's Game

"What the hell?" Dick muttered as he looked around. He was in the middle of a carnival. There were rides, cotton candy booths, and families all around him. It didn't give off creepy vibes, but he couldn't remember how he got here. He didn't have his communicator on him either. Did he get drugged again?
"Who put me in this!?" Dick heard someone say. He spun on his heels to look at the person. He immediately raised an eyebrow. It was Artemis, but she had angel wings. She wore a white, strapless dress, white heels, and had a wooden bow in her hand instead of her compact bow. She had a quiver too, but instead of orange arrows they were red.
"Artemis?" The girl turned to look at the brunette and glared at him.
"So you decided to put me in this, you little pervert. I am so glad I'm control of this dream and you aren't. You would have ji-
-Even in my dreams you're still annoying," Dick scoffed. Artemis shrugged as she grabbed cotton candy from a booth. "You're not going to pay for that?"
"There's no system of currency in dream world. Also, I'm very happy you picked a carnival. I love rollercoasters. And you best believe I'm winning all of those dart games," Artemis shrugged as she started walking. Dick followed after her.
"Why are you an angel? That seems a bit weird for you, Art," He asked as he went to grab a bit of her cotton candy. She swatted his hand away.
"First of all, I'm not Artemis. I'm Cupid. Second of all, you made me this way. It's how dream world works," She grabbed his hand and placed some cotton candy in his palm. He raised his eyebrow at her.
"So if I wanted to see you naked it would happen?" Dick asked.
"No because that would make you a perv," Artemis shrugged. Her face lit up when a girl with black hair and blue eyes walked by. Dick didn't pay much attention until the blonde grabbed his hand, turned them around, and started walking after the girl.
"Where are we going?"
Artemis ignored him however. She stopped walking and grabbed a arrow from her quiver. The arrowhead was in the shape of a heart, and she aimed at the girl. Dick lowered her aim immediately. "What are you doing!?" He exclaimed.
"I'm literally Cupid, Richard. I'm supposed to make you fall in love!" Artemis sighed, "How am I going to do my job if I don't shoot people? Ugh. Anyway, bye Zatanna!" The girl they were chasing turned around and waved at the two. She was indeed Zatanna.
Dick grabbed Artemis' arm and pulled them farther way. The angel looked a little bit confused an offended as they stormed down the path. Eventually they stopped walking.
"Bad choice?" She questioned him.
"I have a girlfriend and her name is Barbara! I don't need you to go shooting arrows at people to make me love them!" He cried as he threw his hands in the air.
"You don't have a girlfriend, at least not in dream world! Which is weird," She shrugged, "How about we go on a ride?"
"Fine, we go on the the Ferris Wheel," Artemis grabbed his hand and they interlaced their fingers together. They turned around and out of nowhere a Ferris Wheel appeared.
"Where did this come from?" Dick asked her.
"Ask yourself that question," She brought them up to the front of line, despite the people. Dick thought the people would be angry, but they were unresponsive. He even used his free hand to touch a mom in line. His fingers went right through her like she was a ghost.
"How come you're real and they aren't?" He asked her as they started to walk to their cart. Artemis hummed and sat down on one end. Dick sat down on the other. He totally didn't miss the fact that all of the carts were in the shapes of hearts.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but production's budget has gotten pretty low. They only had the budget to cast me and the girls," Artemis shrugged as she put her feet up on his side.
"I always knew dreams had budgets," Dick snickered to himself.
"It's idiots like you that make us have one," Artemis sighed. She leaned her elbows on the small table. Dick smiled sat her when she blew a piece of her out of her face. He thought she was cute and for reason he didn't feel guilty about it. Was there a Wally in this world? Was there a Barbara?
"Oh! Oh! What about her!?" Artemis sat up and pointed at one of the operators of the ride. It was Bette from high school. She was just a hookup, so Dick shook his head. "Her?" Artemis pointed to the other operator, who was Raquel from the team.
"She's married," Dick shook his head again.
"Cool," The blonde stood up from the cart and opened the door. They linked arms again and they walked out together. "See? This game isn't this hard to play."
"No, I guess it's not," Dick smiled at her. He swore she blushed. They walked down a path from a few moments until they heard the awful squeal of a high pitched woman.
"Oh my Jesus!" Artemis yelled, "What type of opera singer squirrel just fucked itself over than committed suicide!?"
"It's Kat."
"No, it's a squirrel."
"No! Kat with a K!" Dick pointed at another blonde in a pink dress. She was squealing his nickname, and he was terrified. Artemis looked even worse.
"Oh my god," Artemis muttered, "We have to get rid of this bitch!"
"Please do," Dick hid behind his best friend's wings and waited for her to do something. Artemis snapped her fingers and one of her red arrows turned black. She grabbed that one from her quiver and notched it. While Kat was still squealing Artemis shot her. Instead of shooting her, she was immersed in black foam. When the foam dissolved Kat was gone.
"Hands off the wings, Richard. You have no idea how expensive these are," Suddenly the most interesting things were her nails, which were also done up. He hadn't noticed before.
"Expensive? Don't you grow wings?" Dick asked her as he stepped back.
"Wings are pricey to maintain. If my feathers were overgrown it wouldn't be a good look," The blonde shrugged. She grabbed Dick's hand and started to pull him towards a house of mirrors. That was decorated in hearts too. "We have to go in there!" She cheered.
"What's in there?"
"In there is the mirror of true love! Sounds exciting, right?"
"You're Cupid, so of course it would sound interesting to you," Dick scoffed as she dragged them inside of the house. It full of mirrors, and no people to be looking at them. Some made him taller, shorter, wider, wavy, sideways, and a million different distortions. Artemis' appearance never changed. She didn't look at them either. She didn't stop pulling him until the came up to a large red curtain.
"Here we are!" Artemis said as she threw her arms up in the air. Dick raised his eyebrow at her.
"What do I do now?"
"You step inside, of course," She rolled her eyes like it was self explanatory. Dick shrugged and pushed the curtain open. He heard a puff and assumed that the angel version of his best friend was gone. She was much more annoying than the real one.
He walked over to the heart shaped mirror all the way in the back and read the name of the mirror. True Love, it read. He looked at it in confusion when he only saw his normal reflection. "Hocus pocus?" Dick said. That seemed to work because it played a cliche  flashback noise and the reflection started to ripple. Memories started to play.
Dick thought they would be memories with Barbara, but they weren't. He saw himself taking the picture with Artemis on their first day of school, meeting her when she joined the original team, her on missions, them hanging out after school, prom, her college graduation, and them just hanging out in general.
Before he could vocally protest, he woke up from his dream.

"You alright, Dick? You've been blank all day," Artemis asked him once she jogged up to him. They had been having a team day, like the old team used to have. Dick hadn't been able to concentrate though. He thought about his dream all day.
"Huh," He snapped out of his thoughts. He hadn't even realized she had approached him. When he looked at her face an immediate thought popped into his mind. Man, she's cute ... Wait what!?
"I asked if you were alright. Also, anytime you want to stop walking and have a conversation would be appreciated," Artemis chuckled at the raven. Dick stopped walking and placed his hands in his pockets.
"I'm perfect, Crockpot. What makes you ask?" Artemis chose to ignore the fact that his voice cracked when he called her Crockpot.
"You seemed to have just spaced. Nothing serious though," The blonde shrugged. She turned around when she heard Violet calling her name. Before Dick could say anything she ran off. All Dick could think about was how screwed he was now.