𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦

three (i)

Days passed by and the routine was like usual. Gluttony avoided Temperance, Temperance acted like she couldn't care less about him. Half the class cheered for them. Someone dubbed them 'Glutemp'. The other half ships her and Rhea. Who the hell was Rhea, anyway? She had forgotten about that particular person.

She still managed to keep a straight face despite everything. Sometimes when she talked to Kindness, though, she could feel Envy glaring at her for some reason. Temperance actually had no idea how to deal with her emotions. She was honest with herself, but not in this matter. So... the glaring was useless.

This all hurt, and being close to Gluttony when she knows he felt nothing for her beyond platonic affection also hurt. Dealing with emotions hurt. Everything hurts.

So Temperance locked everything away, and stayed away from Gluttony. She was Temperance. The virtue of restraint. She can restrain herself from running back to Gluttony. This is for the greater good. This way, nobody is hurt. (No, she doesn't count.)

And it all went to hell when Gluttony was assigned as her lab partner.

Okay, he's competent, and their teamwork is great (being partners and rivals since humanity started does that to you) and they're gonna get good grades, but Temperance could never ignore how horrible her performance was when working with Gluttony.

She stuttered and her hand slipped and all she wanted to do was slam her head on the table.

Weirdly, though, he was tolerant of that and was really nice to her. He suggested that Temperance write the report and that he'd do the research part if she doesn't like working with him.

That hurt to hear, somehow. But she agreed. Everything will be alright anyway. This is just a rough patch.