Okay, I am hopeless with structure. Originally, Sins was going to be a short series of seven short drabbles (say, less than 300 words each). However, this particular drabble refused to stay put at 300, and is still going. Thus, I have decided to halve it to at least put up the pretense of structure. Sorry if this annoys anyone as much as it annoys me.

A big thankyou to all my reviewers is in order, as always. Thankyou!!

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Pride – Part 1

And so, once again, Neil was the #1 most hated person on the team. Not that that was anything new.

"I seriously don't get you, Neil."

He studied his nails unconcernedly. They were in desperate need of a manicure. "Careful Archie, you might hurt yourself trying," he said sarcastically, then mentally slapped himself. Being snarky, however satisfying, was not the key to redemption here.

Theresa took the next swing. "Why did you have to take a look in that stupid mirror at exactly that moment, huh? We could have all died!"

Like that was anything new either. Theresa was just mad that her precious Little Mermaid hair now looked more like Pippi Longstocking's, had Pippi been especially careless with the toaster. Still, he thought it best not to mention that. "I couldn't help it," he whined.

His words were met with a collective eye-roll. He sighed and tried again. "Look, I'm sorry your hair got – um, a little burnt, and that Jay got tossed against the wall by the fire-thingies . . ."

"Elementals," Odie supplied from his carefully neutral position on the sofa. He had been keeping his eyes off Theresa for the past couple of hours to avoid cracking up.

". . . But it's not my fault I have to look good!"

Atlanta sighed irritably. "Neil, it's called self-restraint. Why do you have to be so selfish all the time?"

"Yeah?" Archie chimed in, eager to support his girlfriend.

Ok, that stung a little. Neil frowned and folded his arms. "It's true, I can't help it. It hurts to try!"



Oddly enough, Archie blinked in surprise and didn't offer a retort. The girls, however, looked as mad as ever. He half-expected Theresa to go all purple and see-through, so extreme was her rage. "You are so useless," she screamed.

It was at around this time that Jay would usually intervene, telling them to back off and let Neil be Neil, however annoying that person may be. It was Jay who'd tell Theresa that the gods will be able to fix her hair in a split second and have her believe him. Unfortunately, Jay was currently lying in his room with a mild concussion, and it was Neil's fault.

Suddenly, the word useless actually seemed to matter.

Next part should be up within a day or so. Thanks for reading!