"Diane!"
Diane looked up from the ground at the familiar voice. King. She gave a little, tearful smile.
"King." She said just loudly enough for King to pick up on. King flew into the little clearing Diane made within seconds. Upon seeing her, safe and sound, all the tiny little unused muscles within him relaxed. Oh, thank heavens. He floated down to face her.
"Diane, are you alright? You didn't get hurt, did you?" Diane looked away and shook her head. "No." "Diane, listen, I know why you ran." Diane's head snapped in his direction. "Do you? Could you please tell me, because I don't think I do…" More tears. "Diane…" King's heart lurched.
Shaking his head he floated to the ground and walked closer. "Diane, I know you saw Elizabeth and I at Vaizel, and I have a feeling you may already know how I feel about you." King's face turned a bit pink at the open confession. Diane didn't speak, but gave King her full attention. "Diane, I don't want to scare you or push you away. It's difficult for me to tell you this… I'm really embarrassed admitting this to you…" He scratched the back of his head and Diane turned to fully face him. She, too, was pink realizing where this conversation was heading. It was true she understood that King was interested in her. At least, she thought she understood until the Vaizel festival incident. Does this mean she hadn't been misreading signs, then? Thank goodness, because I thought he was being really obvious all this time! I started to doubt myself.
"Diane, I have loved you since before you met King." I'm gonna admit that's not exactly what I was expecting him to say…
"King? What do you mean by that?" Diane was completely confused, and for good reason. "Diane, you knew me when I was Harlequin, King of the Fairies. I made you forget. I'm sorry." King looked down slightly with shame. "We've spent hundreds of wonderful years together, you and I. I made you forget that, and I'm sorry, but I've never stopped loving you." Diane looked at King, shocked but understanding. "Harle..quin… That name sounds familiar." "Diane, I need you to understand that I made you forget for your protection." Diane smiled at King and he was suddenly feeling lighter than air, the weight of such a long-kept secret gone in an instant.
"Diane, I do love you. What you saw at Vaizel, that was just a misunderstanding, I promise. Don't be mad." King floated up to meet Diane face-to-face. "King, honestly, as long as you love me, I don't care what happened." He didn't know if she meant that she didn't care about Vaizel, or that she didn't care about his transgressions of the distant past, erasing her memories and leaving her to forget him. He didn't really care, though, because he knew that even if she can't admit it out loud yet, today's events prove how much Diane was effected by the thought of him loving anyone else but her. Diane set out her hand for King to set himself down and brought him close to her face. He kissed her on her cheek and they both beamed brightly at one another. Diane blushed as she felt her pocket for another shrinking pill. If I'm going to have a proper first kiss with the man I… Diane blushed at the thought. Oh my, and I never even told him I…
"I love you too, King."
"Elizabeth…"
"I need you to understand something, Meliodas." Elizabeth took a deep breath and relaxed in the helpless position she'd taken within the arms of her hero. Meliodas continued to softly stare down at her, expectantly. "I am always going to be the weakest member of the Seven Deadly Sins, and-" "No one e-" "Meliodas, let me finish," Elizabeth's voice rang with regal command and Meliodas merely lifted an eyebrow and remained silent thereafter. Elizabeth sighed. "I know what I'm saying. I've taken a lot of time to think about this. Please listen to what I have to say first." Meliodas nodded his head and Elizabeth continued.
"Well, to answer you honestly, when you asked me about why I've been spending so much time with King, it was because I just couldn't seem to muster the courage to talk to you. You see, King, and you, and all of the Sins… You're all very brave and powerful." Meliodas smirked and rolled his eyes but kept his lips sealed. "There's no place I feel safer than with you, though, Meliodas." The casual, flirty atmosphere between the two suddenly got quite serious. "I really admired King for admitting his feelings for Diane aloud, even just to me, after so much time spent keeping everything to himself, hiding it from her, even though he thought it was to protect her. I've been keeping everything I feel a secret because I don't know how to deal with it, or what to make of it… I just, after seeing King, who's so powerful in battle… and yet when he…with Diane..." Elizabeth put a hand to her mouth, stopping to compose herself again. She could see the bottom of Meliodas' face, a light pink blush donning his neck and cheeks so she knew he was starting to understand, but his eyes were hidden by ragged blond hair.
"What I'm trying to say is that-" I can be brave, too.
She was cut off mid-sentence when Meliodas brought his lips down to meet hers.
The princess and her knight slowly broke their kiss. Meliodas grabbed the back of Elizabeth's head gently and brought her forehead to his, both of them hiding their pink, grinning faces. "I'm sorry, Elizabeth, I just always imagined it would be me having this conversation with you. You really caught me off guard." Elizabeth looked up at Meliodas, straight in the eye. "I love you, Meliodas." His grin grew two sizes as he captured Elizabeth's lips again.
Back at the Boar's Hat, Hawk's chin rested on the windowsill as he stared out the window, bored and starting to get worried.
"Ban, why'd you leave them all out there to look for Diane by themselves? They would find her a lot faster if they had another pair of eyes, and then they'd come home faster too…" and make me food… Hawk trailed off. "Master," Ban slurred, "if they can't spot a thirty-foot giant girl wearing hazmat suit yellow from head toe-er, butt," Ban giggled, "then I wouldn't count on them finding their way back home any time soon either." Ban was sprawled out along the length of the bar, beer mug in hand, sideways, Vanya spilling all over the place.
"You know Meliodas is gonna be pissed, right? You're the one he's gonna make clean it up before we open for business tonight." "I highly doubt that, piggy." He called me piggy? "At least not today, and I intend to fully take advantage of Cap'n's temporary sickness as soon as, uh, like, twenty minutes ago," drunken Ban attempted to count the minutes on his hand to no avail. "You've only been back seven minutes, Ban! How on earth are you already drunk? Can't you hold it a bit longer than that at least?" Ban reached for the bottle of Vanya that was sitting on a table just out of reach, *Ka-thunk* and rolled off the bar and onto the floor. Hawk was surprisingly unimpressed. "Ahh… that was a dumb question, I guess."
