Ban frowned as Akane just sat in her chair with her head down and her shoulder's slumped a bit. Her long red hair slipping over her slender form to hide her face as he scrutinized her for a moment longer before deciding that she wasn't lying. Nor was she yanking his chain with a really bad joke.
She really didn't know or understand where she was or how she had gotten there.
And that pissed him off because now it meant that he was responsible for a young girl who for reasons still unknown to him, been kidnapped for some reason. Which meant that whoever had taken her from her home and brought her to Britannia would likely come for her once they found out she wasn't where they had left her.
If they didn't know that she wasn't there already, that is.
With this firmly in mind, Ban spent close to an hour trying to calm the terrified girl that he had chosen to bind to him and by the time everything was said and done- their food was discarded and left untouched on the table as he sat with Akane resting in his lap. One hand gently stroking her hair as he held her tightly against his chest until she somehow managed to slip into a fitful sleep.
He stayed like that for just a few minutes longer just to be sure that she was totally under before slipping the hand that he'd been previously using to stroke her hair, underneath her legs and then stood up, he took Akane with him as he stood so that he could carry her over to the bed and let her rest until a little later.
Hopefully when she would be feeling a bit better.
Once he had put her back to bed and carefully tucked her in, Ban spent the next few minutes eating since his woman was bound to be getting herself into trouble off and on once she felt more like herself and he needed to keep his strength up. Though it did bother him a bit that she hadn't been able to hold off her hysterics until after breakfast.
But he understood how she must have felt.
After all she was a stranger in a strange land and from what he had understood of things, magic didn't exist where she was from. Which would probably be another reason for hysterics in the near future.
Still- his woman was going to need him to lean on for comfort and strength and he had no intention of letting her down.
Setting his empty plate down on the table he looked over the rest of the food before deciding that he'd put her breakfast in the cooler downstairs in the kitchen for later, just in case she actually felt like eating. That way the food that he had oh-so-carefully prepared for her wouldn't got to waste.
Everything else could either be given to one of the others or to Master Hawk.
He wasn't exactly feeling picky about which one at this moment in time as he carefully collected all of the dishes and headed out the door. He had a feeling that he was probably going to be ambushed at some point by the captain and the others if he didn't pull someone aside and talk to them at one point or another.
Besides... He was going to have to ask the captain to call a meeting later on after the tavern was closed and all of the customer's had gone home.
Plus he needed to introduce his woman to a few of the Holy Knights that hung around with them now as well as the others since he would need the extra help watching out for her.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Ban blinked in shock at seeing how empty the tavern was since to his knowledge the place was well into it's business hours. So shouldn't it be teeming with drunks, travelers, knights and such?
Meliodas looked up from where he was sitting at one of the tables, playing cards with the man he called, Little Gil. Diane, and Elizabeth had also obviously decided to play a few hands since both Elizabeth and Meliodas were both sharing between them what looked like Little Gil's monthly wages for his services as a knight.
"So how did things go?" Meliodas asked without looking up from his hand as Ban brushed by their table, heading towards the kitchen.
"We'll need to speak of that later." Ban said in an uncharacteristically serious tone that had the blond man tipping his head back on his neck to give Ban's back a strangely calculating look before deciding that Ban probably had his reasons for being so somber.
Which meant that none of them were going to like what they heard very much when Ban got around to speaking with them later.
Gilthunder leaned forward in his seat a little bit, deciding to try and take advantage of his inattention to their present game of cards, however he was practically ratted out by the wood that squeaked under his weight. Snapping back to attention without moving Meliodas deadpanned, "You better not be trying to cheat Gilthunder otherwise I'll have to impose a hefty penalty on you."
Bristling a little bit at being caught trying to cheat, Gilthunder leaned back in his seat and cleared his throat as Meliodas returned his eyes to the cards in his hands before sighing a moment later and folding and collecting his winning before moving towards the kitchen where Ban was cleaning up the dishes he had messed up earlier.
Leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, the man's emerald eyes bore into Ban's back before Ban finally broke the silence and said, "We may have trouble coming."
There was a slight flicker of anger in the emerald depths, but the emotion was gone before Ban could turn his head to look at his friend as the blond said softly, "Oh? How so?" He wouldn't imagine that Ban's woman would be much trouble on her own. Unless she was somewhat like Elizabeth of course, but then he tended to tease the princess about his reasons for keeping her around despite her being his lover.
"Akane was kidnapped from her home- a place far, far away place different from our own country and recalls nothing of how she came to be here or why."
Meliodas's eyes widened at this and he pushed away from the doorframe to move to stand just in front of Ban and lightly grasped his friend's wrist so that he could feel his pulse to check if he was lying or not. Ban wasn't of course.
In fact as far as bandits went the man was fairly honest about everything he did or didn't do. Besides, lying right now served no purpose for him.
"Is she alright?" Meliodas asked, his tone slightly concerned as he saw Ban slowly shake his head no before replying softly.
"She was..." Ban took a moment to grapple with himself before saying, "Understandably- hysterical. Though not as hysterical as most people get." Ban turned his head and gazed almost pointedly at the two women of their group. Elizabeth and Diane.
Meliodas let out an soft amused chuckle before sobering and asking. "Will she be alright?"
"I think so. She just needs a little time to process things. She practically cried herself to sleep- didn't touch her damn breakfast. And she'll probably wake up with a bad headache too."
Meliodas listened to Ban and slowly nodded his head in understanding before asking, "Will she be joining our meeting later?" He hoped so since it would give him an opportunity to work in a question or two about the jewelry that he had slipped off of her the other day.
He still wondered why she was wearing the matching pieces to Elizabeth's biological family. He supposed that it could be possible that the girl in Ban's care was in some way related to Elizabeth, even if they were just distant cousin's. But he couldn't help but think that even if that were in some way true- something bad was bound to happen to Elizabeth if he let her get too close to the girl.
And if she in any way threatened his lover... Emerald eyes flashed vermillion ringed in amber for just a moment as he felt a sudden murderous surge of rage.
If he found out that the girl was a threat to his lover and friends, he'd waste no time killing her. Whether Ban attempted to stop him or not.
"I think so. I mean, I know that she needs a bit of time to process things. But she needs to meet everyone. Plus she needs to eat something too. She already weighs next to nothing- I'm worried that she may start starving herself on purpose if this continues."
"Then how about we have a meal together. You, me and the rest. Akane may feel a bit better once she wakes and it'll make our meeting easier to hold once she's introduced herself to everyone."
Ban blinked at Meliodas before his features lit up with excitement. "Hey yeah! That could work! Plus with the girls present she may not feel so overwhelmed by us guys."
Meliodas smiled warmly and nodded his head before saying that he was going to go back and play a few more hands of cards, leaving Ban alone in the kitchen to plan.