The Sin in Sleep
Sleep was for the weak.
Or in this case, it was for his brothers.
It’d been years since he had seen head or tail of them - nearly his entire life - but from his understanding this was not unheard of. Immortals frequently went in for a long nap to pass the time.
How they could spend so much time sleeping when there was so much to do was beyond the youngest Sin, but he supposed it was their right to indulge in a little sloth when the need arose.
Not Pride, though. Never Pride.
Pride had kept busy enough to fill Diligence with envy.
The young Vice swallowed up every task he could get his hands on. He attempted to learn languages and histories, understanding the past so he could better comprehend the present. He filled his home with aquariums and gardens nearly as beautiful as he was. He traveled the world, soaking up cultures from all over the globe.
Anything to occupy all of his time.
Anything so that he did not have to sleep.
He had learned the hard way what damage a good nights rest could do.
Pride wakes up with a gasp, deft fingers grasping frantically at his skin, searching for crystals that were never there. How dare his brother try and take them from him!
Clawed hands meet nothing but smooth skin, not even finding scars. In hardly a moment, the dream has faded into the night and his breathing has steadied, leaving Pride with nothing more than a burning distaste for Greed that felt unnatural in his own mind.
Memories from the first Pride graciously eluded him while he was awake, but when his mind was sprawled out under a blanket of sleep, anything could slip in.
As a Vice, he was lucky. Pride did not need sleep the same way that mortals did, but even with every distraction in the world, he could not stay awake forever.
Tendrils on heated skin, finding cracks in his armor.
Lip crushing kisses, skin breaking bites.
Mon amour...
Pride has had this dream before.
The memories never stuck. He could never see clearly through his predecessors eyes, see what once was, but the feelings remained.
Frustration towards his opposite, as well as confused affection.
Anger, hated, and distrust towards his Father.
Love towards Lust.
These feelings did not belong to him, and in his waking hours he separated his reality from the first Pride’s past.
But after a long night’s sleep, it was always hard to tell the difference.
