HE COULDN'T DECIPHER THE look in Priyanka's eyes as she locked gazes with him.
"Can't you see?" he said as he lifted his arms and her with them," carrying her to bed. The poor thing was fatigued."
"Don't lie to me," Priyanka said," I can smell Acedia's magic from miles away and we all know he listens to few. Why'd you involve him to get this human to fall asleep?"
"What?" Daichi smiled," is this about your soft spot for Acedia? Don't worry, you can have him all to yourself."
A blush colored Priyanka's cheeks as she quickly shook her head, dark locks flying around her as purple ice threateningly shot out of the ground beside him.
"Do you have a death wish?" she said.
"I think you forget, Superbia," he said," we are already dead."
She parted her lips and for a brief moment she was younger, hair in a short bob and eyes young and soft, second-degree burns covering her hands and third-degree burns still scorching her heart.
"If only," she said then, a hint of heartbreak in her voice.
"Well," he said," what do you want from me?"
"What do you want from her, Gula?" Priyanka said," you do know she should remain here. She's human and once she fulfills her end of the deal, the devil will make her forget all about us."
"Once?" Daichi said," you sure do have a lot of faith in her. And that while I thought you hated her the most."
"I don't hate her," Priyanka said," I just don't want her to involve herself any more with demons than she already has. We are pure evil, Gula, don't you know that?"
"Now, I wouldn't give myself that much credit," he said.
"You were an assassin and a thief," she said.
He flinched. Memories came flooding back for a moment, his bleeding feet as he ran away through dark alleyways with just a simple piece of bread in his hand, all the food he had managed to acquire for the week. A growling stomach, a broken heart, a forgotten child.
"I was hungry and alone," he said," what should I have done?"
"I'm a prideful fool and a murderer," she said," we all carry sins. She doesn't yet."
"She will," Daichi said," Ari said so herself and you know her predictions are never wrong. Before she will be twenty, she will be involved with countless murders her parents instigated, before she will be thirty she will have committed more crimes than the amount of money she has to her name. She's a criminal in the making, she belongs with us."
"You're getting too attached already," Priyanka said.
"You set your pride aside to tell me that?" he said.
Priyanka let out an irritates sigh as she waved a hand, the purple shards of ice immediately retracting into the ground as she turned around.
"There's no getting through to you," she said," just do whatever you want then, I don't care."
"I was already doing whatever I wanted anyway," Daichi called out after her.
"Choke in that gluttony of yours, Gula," Priyanka said, before she turned the corner.
Daichi chuckled, before turning around and heading towards her room. As soon as he reached it, he laid Jasmina down, watching her with an indecipherable look on his face as his hand brushed her hair.
"You do manage to get on her nerves, don't you?"
"I swear," Daichi sighed," are you all following me or something?"
"We have the same mission, you idiot," Ari said from her position on the window sill, legs dangling as she leaned back against the glass," of course we're in the same place."
The sunshine filtering through behind her seemed to shower her in gold, each time she tapped her fingers to the rhythm of an ancient melody in her head causing golden ripples to spread over the wood.
"That song's still stuck in your head, I see?" Daichi said as he glanced at her fingers.
Ari blinked, before realizing what he was talking about. She nodded slowly then as she stretched out her hand in front of her face, analyzing her fingers as if they were to tell her a story of her youth.
"I always sang it to my little sister," she said softly," remembering it makes me remember her."
"I didn't think remembering our past would make any of us happy," he said.
"I suppose that explains why none of us are happy," she said.
He grinned as he waved a hand at himself, a shower of chocolate appearing with each breeze of wind he caused.
"I am doing perfectly fine," he said," and Luxuria seems like she's having a great time too."
"Luxuria she -" Ari began, seeming lost for words for a second as a certain fondness colored her eyes, a blush tinting her cheeks," she just does her own thing. I admire that."
"Oh, you only admire her?" Daichi said as he wiggled his eyebrows.
"I will set you on fire," Ari threatened him, a golden flames already sparking in warning from her fingers.
"I know you actually would," Daichi laughed.
Ari jumped to her feet then, walking through the room, holding up anything expensive enough to catch her eye.
"She does have a lot of nice stuff," she commented.
"Materialistic as ever, I see," Daichi chuckled.
"Anyone who says he isn't is a liar," Ari shrugged as she flashed him a grin.
She slipped a necklace in her pocket, before turning back to him, leaning on the desk behind her as she glanced at Jasmina.
"So, you angered Superbia and put our human in a coma, or what?"
"You know how Superbia is," Daichi shrugged," she takes everything to heart. That sensitivity of hers will be the end of her, I don't need you to predict that to know it."
"That's true," Ari nodded," I will push her out of a window one day, I'm not even kidding."
"She'll survive that, you know," Daichi said.
"Unfortunately," she scowled," I can't take her childish lashing out any more everytime she gets hurt. She's always so edge on this day every year, I'm not sure if she died today or what but she should get over it. It's been centuries already."
"And yet you still know that song, don't you?" Lucy said as she stepped out of a pink portal in the air.
"Luxuria," Ari said, eyes wide.
"Don't blame her too much," Lucy said," it's the anniversary of her family's death after all."
Ari blinked, her lips parting before she decided not to say something. Lucy smiled as she looked at Daichi, amusement sparking in her eyes when she started talking.
"When she left us, I was wondering where she went," she said," I should have known you were with her. You always get attached quickly, Gula."
"Why is everyone saying that today?" he exclamated," I do not."
"Then hand her over," Lucy said.
"What's mine is mine, Luxuria," he immediately said, before blinking when he realized his words.
"Don't be so rude against her, Gula," Ari warned.
"It's fine, Avaritia," Lucy smiled at her," I'm not that fragile."
Ari blushed, averting her gaze as she nodded, the gold ripples around her forming faster with the rhythm of her heartbeat.
"But is she alive?" Lucy frowned as she looked down at Jasmina.
"She is," Daichi said," Acedia just put her in a deep sleep. She's dreaming about something happy now, he reassured me of it."
"I wonder what kind of happy memories she has," Ari said as she looked at her," the girl's all high class venom and heartless amusement."
"I suppose that's why we like her so much," Lucy chuckled as she grazed her hand across Jasmina's cheeks, a soft pink heart faintly appearing and fading on the girl's skin.
"What did you do?" Daichi frowned.
"I made her dream happier, don't worry," Lucy said," the girl deserves a break."
She smiled as she turned towards the door, a wicked glint in her eyes.
"We'll be busy enough the next twenty-nine days after all."