A/N: You know that moment when you're sick in bed and inspiration suddenly hits.
Elizabeth was so tired. She thought that after 3 months that there would be some kind of routine in place.
But she was so wrong.
It was absolute chaos, Gowther found a bottle on the roof yesterday. Though at this point she didn't question why Gowther was on the roof in the first place. It was moments like these, bouncing a bawling infant while walking back and forth at the crack of dawn, that she pondered some of life's questions. Like why did Diane always insist on her eggs being over easy, or why King hated raspberries?
"Elizabeth... I'll take over, come back to bed." Meliodas groaned, stretching and holding his arms out. Any other day Elizabeth would insist that he go back to sleep, that she was okay.
But today was not that day.
Elizabeth handed her wailing miracle to Meliodas and unceremoniously flopped on the bed.
Meliodas gave a small chuckle watching his princess lightly snoring into her pillow, while Mavis was trying to deafen him. She had a clean diaper, she was fed and he just didn't know why she was so upset.
Meliodas placed her down in her crib while he got dressed and picked out an outfit for her suited for the early April morning. When all was dressed, Meliodas grabbed Mavis and walked and sat outside on the steps of the Boar Hat.
Mama Hawk had settled down on a hill looking down on a quaint little village and the lake adjacent caught the sunrise perfectly. Meliodas couldn't stop staring at the shades yellow and pink sparkling against the water.
Apparently Mavis couldn't stop staring either. Her eyes widened and the wails digressed into hiccups and finally into that cooing noise that he fell in love with. While reaching toward the sunset covered lake. Meliodas looked down at Mavis and saw her orange eye flash for at least a solid minute.
For the past months, Meliodas had been timing Mavis's goddess eye glowing and flickering. The longest she got was 2 and a half minutes after staring at a bunch of bunnies the other day. The main causes are when she's happy and when she's curious, though her eye was a tossup between unsteady wavering and steady shining.
"What am I going to do with you?" The knight sighed out loud. Mavis looked back at him and babbled. "Yeah, that's right. I'm talking to you."
Mavis giggled and her eye just flickered erratically instead of the stable glow from a few minutes ago. This was getting out of hand. Elizabeth told him that she didn't get her orange eye until after her father fell out of the tree when she was about 7.
Meliodas didn't know how to feel about Mavis taking after her mother this early. Though he was so, so grateful that Mavis wasn't taking after him.
That would be a nightmare. He hoped that never happened for his child even though Mavis's complete existence was new to him. Never in his 3 thousand years of living did he think a fetus between a demon and an apostle could make it past the first trimester. Maybe it was Elizabeth's healing powers?
He honestly didn't know what to expect.
Merlin should probably take a look at her, but Meliodas just hated the idea of the wizard making a brand new guinea pig out of his baby. He also dreaded bringing Mavis to Ishtar, The Druids probably wouldn't want an unstable half demon in their sacred place.
Meliodas was completely at a true loss for the first time since the beginning of the holy war. Even after his bastard brother Estarossa and Zeldris killed him, he had an inkling of what to do next. That was his thing.
"Captain? I see you finally got Mavis to calm down." Meliodas heard King plop down next to him and Mavis started to babble and reach toward him.
"Yeah, I guess she just needed some fresh air is all." Meliodas said bouncing her up and down. "Say, King. Can I ask you some advice?"
"What do you need Meliodas?" King asked allowing Mavis to climb on to pillow Chastiefol. King adjusted her onto her back and let Chastiefol rock her back and forth. Needless to say, Mavis was squealing in pure elation
"Should I let Merlin take a look at Mavis?" The Dragon sin looked at the Grizzly inquisitively. King widened his eyes in minimal surprise, Meliodas usually would ask Ban for advice.
"I suppose, if you want to know what to expect with Mavis. I mean she could completely take after the Princess or she could…" King awkwardly trailed off but Meliodas knew exactly what he meant. "Though I can't tell you what to do with your child."
"Someone like Mavis has never been born before. What could we do?" Meliodas leaned back and saw Chastiefol floating above him with Mavis's little onesie covered foot peeking over the edge, kicking in delight. "She's something entirely new."
"But if anyone had a clue, it would be her. We've both seen what Merlin is capable of." King said, smiling at the floating spear. "Maybe even the Druid Clan in Ishtar, I mean they helped you not that long ago."
Meliodas hummed in thought. Merlin was pretty goddamn shady, he knew that. Though Merlin always had their best intent at heart, and that was something Meliodas could always rely on.
"Meliodas? Are you out there with Mavis? Ban has breakfast ready." Elizabeth called from the door way, before stepping out behind Meliodas and King. "Oh hello my sweet girl, did you have fun on King's spear?"
Mavis heard her mother's voice and kicked her legs in response. She seemed to do that a lot lately. Elizabeth smiled and laid Mavis on her against her shoulder.
"Oh yes I bet you did! I'm sure you're hungry too." Elizabeth fell into the abyss of baby talk and walked back into the bar. Meliodas and King followed behind them and Elizabeth had managed to wrestle the baby wiggly girl into her high chair by the bar and Elizabeth took her seat at the barstool. Meliodas took his position behind the bar with his family and King sat on the other side of Elizabeth.
"Morning Captain, I see your little monster finally stopped screaming." Ban walked from the kitchen area with a tray filled with assorted foods.
"Thank you Ban. Mavis, it's your favorite! Carrots mm!" Elizabeth still not quire out of that certain pit. "Here comes the birdie! Tweet tweet!"
Mavis swallowed the 'birdie' happily while bouncing in her chair, her eye flickering in total elation. This feeding went particularly well, compared to others. Especially the infamous spoon incident of three days ago.
"Where's Elaine? And how come I haven't seen Diane at all this morning?" King asked, leaning his head into his palm while looking around suspiciously.
"Diane left early this morning to go visit her friend… what was it? Marty?" Ban itched his scalp before quickly brushing it off. "Elaine's still asleep upstairs, she's all tuckered out." Ban gave a suggestive smirk that immediately king's face flare reminiscent of a tomato.
"You – You, That's my sister!" King slammed his hands on the table rattling the food. Mavis got too excited and she started slamming her hands onto the table until Elizabeth gently grabbed them. Red faced, King withdrew into his seat he tried to get the image of Ban and his little sister together.
"The hybrid seems quite content, doesn't she?" Everyone whipped their head upwards to see Merlin herself holding Mavis, still kicking her legs in joy as they floated. "You're so cruel not to let me examine her Captain."
"Merlin." Meliodas gave a warning glance and Elizabeth looked between the both of them anxiously. "We talked about you doing your experiments on my kid."
"Experiments? Good lord, she's a baby Merlin." Ban said giving Merlin a dirty look. "Have you no shame?"
Merlin gave a small shrug, Mavis leaning on her shoulder. The wizard landed on the hardwood floor with the click of her heeled leather boots, then handed the infant to Elizabeth's waiting arms.
"Do you really not have any faith in me, Captain?" Merlin walked in front of Meliodas, leaning on the bar while Meliodas stood his ground defensively. "Do you really think I'm a monster?"
"Meliodas? M-Maybe Merlin examining Mavis wouldn't be so bad." Elizabeth anxiously said while bouncing a whining Mavis. "Merlin seems to know everything. So maybe she'll know if we'll… have anything to worry about."
King shot Meliodas a look and he knew what he had to do.
"Fine. I'll let you borrow my daughter." Meliodas groaned and flashed his eyes dangerously. "But if anything hurts her-"
"Please Captain, I'm hurt. Just who exactly do you think I am?" Merlin pouted placing a hand above her heart although her eyes completely betrayed her words. "I promise your hybrid will be returned to you the exact state she was given."
After a tense second, Meliodas's face sprung back to his happy go lucky attitude and Elizabeth sighed in relief.
"Then we won't have anything to worry about." Meliodas said. Merlin smiled back before walking to Elizabeth and gently snatching the baby who cooed at the new person. Merlin balanced the baby on her hip gave everyone a 2 finger salute before teleporting out of the Boar hat.
"Well... That happened." King said unsurely. A curtain of insecurity had veiled over the room as King took a large blind bite from his waffles before spitting them out. "Did you put raspberries in my waffles Ban?"
Merlin returned to her laboratory with Mavis and gingerly set her on the wooden stump examination table.
Mavis was kicking her legs and wiggling around as Merlin moving her fingers around feeling for a heartbeat. She counted seven beats across her wiggly torso. Merlin hummed in affirmation, she had wondered whether the hybrid would be born with seven hearts, one heart or maybe something in between. Her eyes and ears seemed to react properly to light and sounds, along a healthy body weight as well.
Merlin decided to test the Apostle blood next. She conjured pictures of generally happy things. Bunnies, ducks, and other disgustingly cute things. Mavis's goddess eye fluctuated between flickers and steady glows to different contacts. The steady glows came in when family and things she trusted came into play, while the flickering went into different things that interested her.
During all the tests that took place there has been no sign of her father's demonic shadows on her skin or in her eyes. Merlin supposed those instincts would be developed later so she'd have to examine that later. Perhaps during puberty when hormones are running rampant or a situation where extreme adrenaline is necessary.
Now was time for the final examination, which had to be executed with haste as not to cause any permanent damage.
Mavis should probably be asleep for this, better to spare her from being traumatized later on.
Merlin quietly hummed her incantation and Mavis went unconscious without any sense of rebellion. Now while that's dealt with…
Merlin traced her right finger up Mavis's torso while muttering some words in a language that time had long forgotten as her hand grew a translucent green. Mavis gave a few small coughs just as floating glowing ball squirmed its way out of the baby's mouth as Mavis went limp.
Merlin held the tiny soul in her palm, taking in every detail with her eyes. The glowing orb had a swirl of an ominous shade of darkness and golden light. The soul felt like the weight of an apple.
Much to her surprise, music started to pour out from her hand. Merlin swore that her heart stopped for what seemed like a split second. She never ever expected to hear that song again. The soul seemed to pulsate with each note and glow brighter.
It was a song of hope and rebellion. Yet she knew it ended in despair.