"Envy! Stop!" Kindness shouted, running, out of breath. Leaves and mud stuck to his pure white hair gave him a frantic look as he ran as fast as he could, following only the silent footsteps and the silent panting of his rival. "I mean it! Stop running!"

Envy heard his pleas. She could feel every abnormal dip in his voice.

She ignored it and kept on running, barefoot, pale skin littered with nicks and scratches, dyed with vivid red blood. Every time she moved her limbs, her chest felt like someone ignited a fire inside and then doused it with water from the Arctic.

Yet she ran.

"Envy! Why are you running?" Kindness called out, his tone of voice pleading. "Stop! I just want to talk!"

She didn't listen. She continued her sprint, thinking back to days that Kindness was still a girl and she was still a boy.

Those days, Kindness would definitely leave her alone.

"Envy, damn it, just stop!" Kindness yelled.

Envy nearly stopped. She had never fully gotten used to the white-haired virtue cursing.

She guessed she would never be able to get used to it.

Finally, when the stitches in her side was unbearable, Envy let her tired legs buckle and she landed hard below a tree.

The forest was dark, with few beams of moonlight shining the ground, the thick leaves of the trees blocking the moon.

Kindness caught up to her.

"Finally! Look at you, you're a mess." Kindness chastised her. "Envy, I thought we stopped the whole running thing millennia ago."

Envy tugged off her other pigtail, the left one already undone in midst of the chaos of running. "Damn, I'm sorry. I just... I'm scared."

Kindness sat down next to her. He sighed and took off his old scarf, then started wiping Envy's many small cuts with it. "I explicitly told you that you can talk to me."

"I don't want to be a hell of a burden," Envy replied, wincing as Kindness started his healing, his hands glowing a darker blue compared to his past self.

"You're not a god damn burden," Kindness muttered. "I willingly stuck by you all the time. Would I actually stick to a burden?"

"Yes, because you're Kindness, no matter how not-innocent you are now," Envy pointed out, trying her best to un-tangle her hair, her old personality poking out.

Kindness smiled. "You're right," he replied, his old self back.

For a moment they sat in silence until Envy broke it.

"I'm fading," she said quietly as Kindness finished up his healing.

His hands hovered over Envy's barely-there cuts.

Finally, he answered.

"We all are."

Envy smiled ruefully.

"You're not wrong."