Hi everyone, nice to meet you. This is my first Seven Deadly Sins fic. Just a pointless drabble. I absolutely love the Ten Commandments and I hope at least a few of them aren't stereotypical evil villains. So I decided to write a bit about how I see Dolor and Gloxinia. Now that I've written these things the manga will probably go out of it's way to prove that I'm wrong but I hope you enjoy anyway.
I do not own Nanatsu no Taizai/Seven Deadly Sins or any of it's characters.
You could learn a lot about someone in almost five thousand years.
Dolor had known Gloxinia for four thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight years and had known him well for three thousand four hundred and twenty-one of them.
They had fought together, both for and against the Demon Clan, bled together, talked together, trained together and been sealed in a different dimension for three thousand years together. If you didn't know a guy after that, you probably never would.
They understood each other's subtle body language. If Gloxinia was chewing on the inside of his lip he was lost in thought and didn't want to be spoken to. If Dolor removed the cloth he used to cover his head he was in a good mood and feeling social, or as social as Dolor ever felt anyway, so not very social actually. Contrariwise, if Gloxinia had turned his spirit spear back into an actual spear, freeing his wings, he felt agitated, confined and trapped. He was inconsolable when he was like that and had to be avoided at all costs and left to calm down on his own.
Dolor enjoyed meditation and strengthening his mind, Gloxinia knew a surprising amount of riddles (no, they were not a 'human thing,' screw you Derrierie) and had spent many an enjoyable afternoon watching the only person he could truly consider a friend puzzle through them.
Dolor could wait patiently for something for hours, he believed things would happen when they were meant to happen, there was no point in rushing something.
Gloxinia could also wait patiently for hours, he'd outlasted Dolor a fair few times. But only when he was in a patient mood, if he wasn't he would start fidgeting after five seconds and picking fights after five minutes.
Despite the fact that he was over forty feet tall Dolor could blend into almost any space and make you forget he was there by sitting silently and observing.
Despite the fact that he was barely five feet, four inches, you could never miss Gloxinia if he was in a room, he was loud, brash, smelled like ginger, had bright red hair and was covered in thorn tentacles.
They understood their differences, not just the ones they had noted in their behavior, other things too. Gloxinia patently listened to Dolor's views on fate despite thinking it was a load of Black Hound poop. Likewise Dolor nodded occasionally when Gloxinia went on (and on, and on, and on) about his own views on the world, he had many. He was passionate, observant and clever.
They didn't always simply nod along when they didn't agree with each other, it wasn't uncommon to see the two of them deep in a debate about leadership. Dolor would argue that fighting to become leader of your clan was the best way; it proved that you really wanted it and that you were the strongest fighter and could protect your people when necessary, relying on a magic tree was stupid.
Gloxinia would yell back that just because you were strong and wanted something badly didn't make you the best choice, look at Galan, you wouldn't want him in charge of anything, would you? And if Dolor could believe in something as flimsy and intangible as fate then Gloxinia could put his faith in a magic tree that had given him a very sharp, pointy spear and maybe Dolor would like to insult Fairy customs one more time and find out just how sharp and pointy that spear was?
They were usually a bit more respectful of each others' previous culture though.
Usually.
A bit.
Ask Dolor what the giants were like and you'd go away knowing more about giant culture than most giants but ask him about the rest of the world and he'd roll his one remaining eye and mutter about how anything that couldn't last through centuries wasn't worth talking about.
Ask Gloxinia about the rest of the world and he could tell you about human, giant, demon, vampire, werebeast and Goddess culture. Ask him about fairies, however, and he'd clam up faster than Zeldris when asked to say something nice about his brother Meliodas.
They weren't very similar but they did have a few points.
Dolor's power eye was for seeing through anything, including minds, Gloxinia hadn't lost his fairy ability to see into hearts so they both often had insight and perspective into others that the rest of the Commandments did not.
They both had a passion for the culinary arts, despite this the oh-so-badass vegan Gloxinia nearly fainted the time, before they joined the Demon Clan, he bet Dolor he couldn't eat one hundred roasted pigs in a row and Dolor actually decided to indulge the fairy's silly little bet.
Gloxinia had underestimated Dolor. He had underestimated Dolor greatly.
They both enjoyed the outdoors and a calm gentle breeze on a warm day could still bring a tiny, hidden smile to both faces while a lashing rainstorm could turn those smiles into blazing grins that were much harder to hide.
Despite being by far the more serious of the pair, Dolor truly did not mind keeping lookout while Gloxinia set up pranks for the other Commandments.
However he did take far more pleasure in throwing Gloxinia to the wolves when Zeldris came after them, sword drawn.
But it went deeper than that.
They both knew what it felt like to have their pride, not boastful arrogance, but genuine self-confidence, crushed underfoot, so they looked out for each other and tried not to yell at each other too loudly unless they were alone.
Furthermore they both knew what it felt like to be betrayed, so their loyalty to each other ran deeper than Clan or Commandment. It was never something they talked about, but they both knew the other's loyalty was first and foremost to them, then to the Commandments as a whole and it was something worth protecting.
They both knew the other missed their original Clan, their original lives, occasionally.
Fraudrin had just broken the seal holding them out of their world and Dolor and Gloxinia tasted fresh air for the first time in three thousand years.
The large parts of them that were fully demon couldn't care less what the air was like, so long as it was breathable, but the very depth of their souls, that were still that of an earth-loving giant and nature-loving fairy, trembled.
They'd gone to Edinburgh, or what was left of it, to recuperate, and Dolor sat quietly on the ground nearby while Gloxinia lounged on a twisted pile of rock that had once been a part of the castle, lying on his stomach to keep his wings free.
There were still a few things about each other they didn't know however, and a few things they didn't know about themselves.
Ever since he'd gotten back to his home realm Dolor couldn't stop thinking about their old lives.
"Gloxinia?"
The ex-Fairy King hadn't moved but Dolor knew he was awake, he could literally hear him thinking.
"Yes?" Asked the Commandment of Repose without sitting up.
"Do you think there could be atonement for either of us? If we wanted it?"
Gloxinia didn't say anything for almost a full minute and Dolor felt all of his shields flying up, emotional as well as mental.
Then Gloxinia chuckled and (very carefully) rolled onto his side, his red hair pooling like blood on the ground behind him.
"For pity's sake Balor," he put special emphasis on Dolor's unwanted alias, knowing it annoyed him, Dolor knew, "go to sleep. We'll deal with it in the morning."
Dolor almost smiled, they'd been betrayed, crushed, turned into demons, defeated again and again, and he was sitting up considering something any decent Commandment would kill them both for even thinking about. And they'd deal with it in the morning.
No, redemption was probably far out of both their reach, and neither of them wanted it anyway. Whatever happened, they'd chosen their path and would deal with it together...
In the morning.
Done! Hope you enjoyed guys! Bye!
