Love Me Like You Do pt.2

Pride sat on top of the toilet humming with his hands over his eyes. Lust wouldn't let him leave Wrath in a room alone just in case she fainted or injured herself again. She finished up and dried herself behind the shower curtain as Pride let himself take a peek. He could see the vague outline of her drying herself and putting her shorts on. He was lost in his own head for a second, his imagination ran wild at the unexpected sight. It wouldn't have been so shocking to see exposure of skin from Greed or Envy, but the element of surprise increased his intrigue on the opportunity.

"Pride!" she yelled.

"I wasn't looking!" he jumped.

"Uhm okay… I was gonna ask for help. I can't raise my arm high enough to put the sweater on."

He swung the curtain open and saw her in shorts and bra with her wet long hair draped over her chest. She looked up at him shyly as his jaw dropped at the sight of her.

"I-I'm sorry I'm not used to seeing you like this."

"He's soooo into you," Eros teased.

Wrath jerked in pain as she tried to get out of the tub, "Son of a b*tch, how did I even injure my ribs?"

"Here, let me help," Pride carried her carefully to the living room sofa.

"Pride?"

"Yea?"

She motioned to him to get closer and whispered, "Thanks," she gave him a gentle kiss on his cheeks.

"You dirty sl*t!" Eros chuckled to himself.

Pride froze and looked at his friend in disbelief. It took him a few moments to process what had just happened. He got embarrassed and rushed to look for Lust.

"Um… I think Lust needs my help."

"Why would you play with that poor boy like that?" Eros nudged her.

"I mean I appreciate him helping me. Not like any of you did anything."

Eros shrugged while his master studied the scars she had obtained earlier that day. A ruckus was heard from inside of Lust's room. He let out an exasperated grunt before walking out to the living room with black streaks and sweat all over his face.

"No matter what I did, this fucking rock won't budge or even peel away. I don't know what else I can do. Sorry," Lust gave up.

"Maybe I can try something?" Pride asked for the rock.

He went out to the balcony and ran water over the rock from the tap. There were two sets of pipes that were connected to different parts of the building. Initially the building had taken water from a nearby estuary as it was the only water source available back then. As time passed, the new building management installed a soil water plumbing. But this system couldn't reach the pipelines of the balcony and they managed to use filtration systems instead. Wrath took out the filter and discovered the brackish water supply.

Wrath used to harvest her salt from the area as it had a high salinity level and charged with useful energy. She stopped using the tap when a lady and her toddler were murdered by a deranged ex-lover. He had dumped their bloody remains into the estuary. Wrath ran the tap one unsuspecting morning to witness contaminated water pouring into her pail. Even though it had since been cleaned, she was traumatized to use the tap. But, of course, she hadn't told anyone else about the occurrence.

"Holy crap! It's working!" he said excitedly.

Small pieces of the rock crumbled off to finally exposed a shiny black gem inside of it. The surface was smooth enough to reflect Pride's own image on its surface, but it swallowed a huge portion of light that allowed only few glints of sparkle to shine at a certain angle. Pride rubbed the rock to get rid of any residual crumbs, his fingers felt a weird buzz or tingle. Eros showed up next to him to get a closer look at the foreign object and made a shocked face.

"Woah… it's been at least a few hundred years since I saw something like that," Eros pondered.

"Pass me the stone," Wrath demanded.

She studied the hidden linings deep inside the stone. Statics ran along her fingers as it trailed its way all over the surface. Her eyes widened at the realization of what she had just obtained and looked up at Eros in glee. They both glanced at each other before the latter gave a nod and disappeared. The brothers shared a confused look while their eyes searched for any clue or sign of another presence on the balcony.

"Um…. Who were you looking at? And I think now is a suitable time to explain why weird things are always happening around you," Pride suggested.

"Fine, let's go inside. I have an important thing to do tonight though," she led the way.

Lust followed behind and gave his brother a shrug. The three of them sat on the living room couch facing one another, making a triangle. She began to explain her abilities and some background stories regarding her parents and family members. Pride had a puzzled look the whole time while Lust seemed to grow more intrigued as she continued.

"So, this Eros guy knows everything about us?" Lust asked.

"And reports them to you?" Pride added.

"Yeah, more or less. But sometimes I can do that myself. He just teased me about it," she confirmed nonchalantly.

Pride took a heavy gulp of saliva as his temples started to perspire at the thought of the embarrassing things he had thought of. He became flustered, though no one noticed. Lust was busy shooting more questions before everyone realized that the sun had gone down. The clouds overlapped each other to form a magnificent scenery and gradient of mismatching colors.

Wrath went out for a smoke on the balcony with Lust. Wind swept through their hair in sync. The purple portion of the sky reflected against her eyes and seamlessly blended through her silky hair. The night breeze had gotten colder and brought shiver over her body.

Lust noticed and covered her hair with the hood of her sweater and stood behind her. His hands on the railing on either side of her and his chin on top of her head.

"You are still as short as you were last year," he smiled.

"Is that a problem?" she huffed.

"I never said that. Anyway, thanks for telling us. I know it's hard for you to open up."

"You guys are like family to me now. No one else took me in after everything that happened. I think you both deserved to know."

"Don't get sappy on me now!" he hugged her tightly.

"Let me go!!!"

Pride ran outside to join the group hug and carried both of them off the ground.

"Ughhh… get off me!" Lust protested.

"I love you guys!" Pride mocked.

"F*CK OFF!!!" Wrath and Lust yelled in unison.