Our First Fall
A Meliodas and Elizabeth story
Chapter Eleven: All Because of You
My bedroom door opened and I groggily looked at the figure sneaking in at this early hour. "Meliodas?" I muttered and the girly giggle that responded told me just who it was. "Jelamet?" I ask, just as confused.
"So, he's snuck in here before, eh?" She asks, bouncing over to sit on my bed, jostling me.
"What do you want?" I grumble, rubbing at my face.
"Davian asked me to meet him early this morning." She gushes, grinning too happily at this hour. "Come with me to Charity's home, so I can go meet him. The kids will be asleep, at most you'll have to do breakfast. I'll be back before your torrid walk across town." She wiggled her eyebrows and I sat up just to shove at her.
"Fine!" I relent as she giggles, grabbing my blankets to tug them off.
She stays while I dress and I can tell she's still excited about the win we had at the council. For the last week, we've been working with the council to seamlessly integrate ladies. Of course, some women were already doing jobs just not getting credit for them. What surprised me, was the wave of women who joined the war effort. Not as in-camp-healers, but as fighters. Already the troops' numbers were raising and I frowned.
A nervous flame had been licking at my insides since I found that out. Wondering... is that why Ludociel had supported it? Or, was this just an unintended consequence? Most ladies have come to me and Jelamet with praise and wonder. It was just some of the lower-skilled men that seemed put off with it. We had met some disdain I hadn't been expecting, like Ms. Mabel our bitter headmistress.
None of that mattered though, as time went on people would see that more freedom for someone else didn't mean less for them.
The temple was quiet and still when we flew through it, the air outside nipped at me, chilly from morning dew. I should have worn a jacket.
With the streets quiet, we whispered to match the tone around us. Jelamet told me she thinks Davian was so insistent to see her as he and his 'old lady' were separating. "It has to be the policy we changed, I think she wants out now that she had more choices." She's so hopeful and happy, I hope she's always like this and I grip her hand for a squeeze. "It's all because of you," Jelamet says, eyes shining with joy.
"You and Lady Graelle too, it was a joint effort." But she just shook her head, fondly looking across at me.
I dressed, hurrying. We flew across the city and didn't pass a single soul, the streets so quiet from the early hour.
When we signed in, kids were already awake and when one was up it was only a matter of time for the others to follow. Jelamet gave me an apologetic smile while rushing out before any of the kids noticed her. I greeted the morning with the little ones and when they stopped clawing at me, I peeked my head into the kitchen. Emilee was there, in her night clothes and she flushed when seeing me.
"I didn't have time to dress." She explains, "Little Lola was up all night, her fevers have started- early. She's going to be a strong girl." Emilee looks so tired but proud, as she works on whatever she's cooking. "Thank you for always helping out here and because of you and Jelamet, I can raise to be Charity Home's director. You have no idea how worried I was when Old Man Gravins announced his retirement last month."
We talked for some time, I plated and served breakfast, even covering plates for the children still in bed so they wouldn't go hungry. The sun started rising and Jelamet wasn't back, but I wasn't worried yet. When the older kids finished eating, they asked if I'd watch them play hoop ball. A few bragging with little quips of "We've gotten really good!" and "I bet we could beat you."
With no sign of Jelamet, my heart dropped thinking I'd miss Meliodas at this rate. I gave up on her returning in time and went to watch hoop-ball. They had gotten better. I agreed to play against them, the two older kids opposite me on their own team and a few younger kids divided between us. Emilee cheered us on, calling out fouls. The sun was up, the gates would open soon... then I felt him.
Meliodas was here. From his energy, I floundered the ball and it was turned over to Joy and she passed it through the hoop with a woot of excitement for having gotten one over on me. "Good play, Joy," I tell her, grinning at her exuberant face. I call a break, turning to go between this building and the next, down the small alley, as we were in the courtyard of Charity's home.
He stopped, looking over at me and I grin, excited that he found me. Could he feel me, like I felt him? Meliodas met me halfway down the gap between the two buildings. My hopping steps paused as I spotted what was in his arms. A limp, something and he held it up to me, eyes clear and concerned.
"Can you save him?" He asked, "We found him on our way here."
He must have been attacked by another animal. Judging by the look of him. I took the little white puppy in my hands, asking Meliodas to come with me. We walked to the courtyard as I spotted a little pink nose amongst all the blood. With a little glow, the puppy did grow warmer but he was close to the edge, his little chest started to rise higher. The kids stopped their game, coming over to see the poor creature.
"Is it going to die?" I heard little Garret, a patchy haired kid that always got into scraps ask. Emilee sent another kid to get a wash rag with some water to clean him up.
"No, Meliodas found it in time," I reassure, sitting down in the grass and placing the little animal in my lap. With some concentration, I felt the little guy, assessing what I had to fix. A broken bone mended. A ruptured spleen, healed and when I stopped the brain bleed the little guy gave a little 'yip'. The lacerations sealed and when I held his disconnected tail against his spine to heal it, as the body had to be in the right position to heal, the little puppy wiggled it.
"You're amazing." Meliodas praised, in awe and I looked up to meet his smiling eyes. Wishing it could always be like this.
All the kids cheered, asking to hold the little guy and I relented, making sure they knew to be gentle. I watched after the little puppy for a moment, but the children were naturals in their softness, giving him a little bath and laughing at his sneeze.
"You must be Meliodas?" Joy, the dark haired older girl looked him up and down. "Elizabeth talks about you all the time." She says, sounding every bit like the exasperated child she was. I laugh as another kid asks from beside the puppy "Meliodas?" and rushes over.
"Can you do some demon stuff?" The little boy, Garret inquires, always too brave for his own good. Meliodas laughs.
"Oh, absolutely." He agrees, taking my hand. "That game you have set up, that's demon stuff." He says, turning to me and asking "Want to play a game before I have to go?"
I agree, just as the smallest, silver-haired child asked if the puppy could have a blanket. Meliodas grinned, dipping low and when I blinked he was standing nonchalantly by the child. I felt a breeze and looking down, my calf length dress was now cut to above my mid thighs. What?!
"I found this, little one? Is that okay?" I heard Meliodas say, handing the sweet child the fabric of my dress. The little girl looked so enthralled. "Thank you, Sir Meliodas! It's perfect!" and charmingly, she tucked it around the puppy as if it were a sleeping baby. I grew hot, not wanting the kids to see anything indecent if I played our game like this.
Emilee came to my rescue. "Kids, let's find some things to make the puppy a house." Her voice sounded a little alarmed but they listened, seemingly unphased. When the last kid went inside I glared over at Meliodas, who was now tossing the ball from hand to hand.
"First my undergarments and now this." I waved over the jagged, diagonal cut of my dress. It was higher up my thigh on the right.
"Play me for them." He challenges, and to my utter mortification he pulls my old panties from his chest pocket and puts them in between his teeth.
"Meliodas!" I hiss, lunging for the ball and... then we were playing. Just as often as I blocked his shots, I tried to snag my pair of panties, only touching them once. When I got the ball, I ducked, making a point and using my body to my advantage and doing something he didn't expect. Using my own teeth, I bent to snag my panties back. The ball was forgotten as Meliodas grew dark, not in his demon way, but in a devious, serious way.
"Oh... Elizabeth." He purrs, the energy changed from playful to sexual and I didn't know why I grew so warm at my core from just a look. I couldn't help but gasp, looking down at myself in shock as my panties fell from my now open mouth. They never touched the ground.
"H-how did you do that?" I asked, in awe, looking up at him.
"I'm quick." He says, shrugging, obviously referencing the panties he'd grabbed from the air.
"No... your voice made me..." I flush, dropping to a low whisper, honestly curious. A cool breeze of morning air whipped around us, his hair flapping in the wind and I had to hold my own back. As if drawn in, we both stepped forward and in tandem, we met in the middle to kiss.
It was slow and sweet. His hands find my arms, just above my elbows and I fist his vest. The wanting, it burns more intense and I rub my thighs together to ease it. It doesn't help.
"Ahem." A voice interrupts and I pull away immediately. Meliodas takes a deep breath and raises a brow over at the noise that interrupted. I look over, seeing the tall, armored form of the Archangel Mael. He had a comforting arm over the hunched shoulder of my friend Jelamet. She was upset.
"Meliodas, as successor to the evil king himself your attendance is of the utmost importance in these-" Mael starts, seemingly containing his anger with the last of threads of his sanity. What had him so upset?
"Yeah, yeah. No fun, all work." Meliodas interrupts turning to me and winking "pink today, huh?" I'm confused, as he walks over to the door of Charity's home, opens it and yells inside. "Bye kids, take care of Estarossa for me." A slew of 'already leaving?' 'What a good dog name!' and 'come back and play with us!' sounded out after him.
He started walking away, stopped to grin back at me, and I waved a little goodbye. Meliodas goes, passing Mael and I watch him. Jelamet lets out a little sob and I refocus, rushing up to Mael to take my friend from his arms, she reluctantly lets go of him.
"Fraternizing with a demon it can only end badly, Elizabeth." Mael reminded, looking concerned and hurt rather than the anger I'd just seen in him. I didn't know why, but it seemed like he expected something from me and I drew a blank as to what it could be. "He's using you. Demons don't feel like the rest of us." He says as if explaining it to a child.
With my arm around my crying friend, my ire was damped. "You're wrong," I tell Mael, guiding Jelamet away. "Maybe if you actually took the time to get to know a demon, you'd question what you've been told." I don't bother to look back and I feel bad for him. Ludociel had some extreme views, I'm sure Mael had to listen to them all the time and I knew he could rant if he found a tangent to go off about.
Demons were Ludociel's favorite subject.
Inside Charity's Home, I found a cush chair for Jelamet, got her a blanket and made her some tea. Emilee comes over but Jelamet doesn't tell either of us what is troubling her so deeply. She seems broken. We stay all morning, even as lunchtime approaches Jelamet had stopped crying and instead she is stoic, staring and unresponsive. The kids are concerned but with the puppy, they are distracted enough for them to be unaffected.
I take some of the extra food from Charity's home to bring to Meliodas. Food across the city is shared so I knew I wasn't hurting anyone. It was freely given if it was needed. Emilee agreed to keep an eye on Jelamet while I was gone, but I sat at her feet before I left, touching her knee.
"Hey... No matter what happened, we'll handle it together." I tell her, trying to reach her. She looked, gone. Like no life was in her. I'd already checked if there was an ailment, but she was just in shock.
"You should leave that man," Jelamet rasped, her blank face suddenly furious. Her voice stayed low, just for me as she hissed, "A demon and a goddess? Mael's right, giving your heart to someone like him will leave you shattered."
"Jelamet?" I couldn't believe it. She'd never said a word against Meliodas before. "What happened?"
I expected her to soften, to realize what she just said but her expression turned harder. "It's all because of you," Jelamet fumed, eyes shining with resentment. She stood, throwing off the blanket from her shoulders and stormed out, leaving Charity's Home and me behind without a backward glance. Emilee and I shared a confused look. This wasn't like her. Lady Hallen arrived then and Emilee went off to nap since she'd been up most of last night while I headed toward the compound, flying in a daze after some distracted goodbyes to the kids. I left Estarossa in their care.
Jelamet had met Davian this morning, he must not have broken it off with his partner... he must have broken up with her, breaking her heart? It was the most logical guess I came up with. Perhaps she was warning me off of Meliodas as she'd had her heart shattered, and didn't want me to suffer the same fate? My eye filled but I didn't cry, wiping them away before they could fall. Tomorrow I'd bring her some tea and we could talk this through.
Meliodas would know what to do.
I noticed the compound had recently been swept as the falling leaves were gone from the stairs. Since I was early, I took a seat at the topmost step, off to the side of the doors to give the others inside a clear path. Gloxinia and the fairies were out first, followed close behind were the vampires. Neither stayed, it was always just Meliodas that lingered during breaks, to be with me.
Gloxinia comes over, telling me how he had grown fond of Meliodas and Zeldris, and even the Vampire Female, Ren had some funny quips. "This might work, not just outlining the laws of our treaty, but just getting to know one another." Gloxinia gave me hope and I hugged him before he left. The demons hadn't left the meeting yet and I stood, walking over to the door and bending to look in.
Zeldris was strolling out, shoulders back and scowl on. He spotted me and scoffed. I didn't take offense, Meliodas explained that he had been ill-tempered since finding out he'd be separated from Gelda for so long. Cusack is behind him, tall and oozing menace. When he heads in my direction, I stand, smiling. "He is needed to make up for lost time this morning and won't be out to play today. Those arch-asses are rehashing what he's missed."
He said it as if I'm an annoyance that had pestered him for that information but I smile at him. "Thank you for telling me, Zeldris."
Zeldris looks at me, for a long moment before nodding. Maybe accepting that I was with his brother? After Jelamet, I couldn't be sure, I may be looking for acceptance anywhere I could find even a hint of it. He sighs, hand racking through his hair before he says, kinder. "The Giants want the last of the treaty to be finalized with them... There is a discussion of us moving our meetings to their city."
Without a glare, he turns from me, Cusack gave me a sneer but after what Zeldris did I didn't give it much thought. He cared, a little. Meliodas will be happy to hear it. The two didn't always get along, from the stories Meliodas had told me, but I knew they loved one another as usually, the stories Meliodas told ended in laughs or wry grins.
Since no one was around to stop me, I go into the compound and head to the conference room. The door was open just a crack. Ludociel wasn't there, it was Sariel and Tarmiel. He would order someone else to do all the dirty work, keeping Meliodas back and not catching him up on his own. It must be important though, the treaty itself was too important to risk. So, instead, I just put my flowered fabric sack of food beside the door.
I hoped he didn't go hungry.
That evening I knocked on Jelamets door, hoping to get a response, but there was none. Lady Graelle didn't need any help and I was at a loss. My pursuit of equality was complete, the war over and I didn't have anything to fight for anymore. I thought back to my glowing hands and I figured a trip to the theater to play with my new power wouldn't be bad.
The streets were full of dancing goddesses, strings of flowers were flying through the air and I wondered what they were celebrating. I flew over to a sister-in-waiting I knew, who had a loop of flowers she placed on my head as soon as she saw me. "The Treaty is finalized!" She yelled in celebration but my heart stuttered. He wouldn't be allowed in our city anymore. No wonder he had to be caught up, something important must have been decided while we were playing that silly game.
Something he hadn't had the chance to tell me himself.
No one paid me any mind as I snuck behind the old folks home, through the garden and between the gap of the stones. The sun was still up, so I took to flying above the clouds and hopping from one to another in case anyone below happened to be watching. It took longer but I wanted to be alone.
Zeldris had tried to tell me... Meliodas' and I's time is basically up.
With a soft thud, I landed on the stage of the theater. I lay there under the sun to soak in the warm. Since I set out to test my powers, I did. I made an ark bubble, with some umph I spread it to encompass the whole floating island. Bigger than I've ever succeeded in doing before. I strained, holding it as long as possible, telling myself 'if I can keep this together, Meliodas and I have a chance' and power welled.
I felt strong, holding so much raw ark energy and I tried to flow some extra, to make a light sword in my hand. With a gasp I did it, two separate light powers a once but the Ark flickered. I shook the light energy from my palms to reach up and stop the Ark from exploding, breaking it apart and leaking it free. I would hate if I blew the theater away... or if I sonic boomed my location to everyone within a few hundred miles.
Sitting up, I looked at my hands, holy shit. I did two at once. I did an ark and a blade. Using my wings I got to my feet and created two blades, about doubling the length of my arm. I'd seen an archangel's blade span across the sky before. Could I do that? I focused, not sure how to push the power forward. I crossed them, moved as if I was throwing a javelin and even tried saying 'extend' but they stayed. Either I couldn't sort it out or I wasn't that powerful. I couldn't complain. I had more capabilities than I ever had before.
"You've gotten stronger." I flinch, taking to the air as I spin, finding Meliodas at the top of the viewing block, to the left.
I fly forward, too fast as I collide with him but Meliodas doesn't move an inch as he catches me. We're pressed together with all the might I could muster in my arms. "I thought... maybe... with the treaty finalized..." I can't even finish it, tears streaming down my chin already and I press my face into Meliodas' neck. He nuzzles in, I hear him breathe in deeply against my hair, muscled arms pressed me ever closer.
"I'll be away for a few weeks. I'm the chosen representative for the Giants part in the treaty." I twist, pulling back just enough to see him. He looks so hopeful. "After... when it's over, would you like to-"
"Yes!" I say, an excited whisper escaped me. He wanted to be with me, too.
Eyes alight he says, "You didn't know what I was going to ask!" He looks thrilled and then devious "but since you agreed..." He flips up my dresses ruined hem and falls to his knees, putting his face right at my core. I felt myself grow wet.
"Oh!" I grow hot, catching the hem to try and wiggle it between Meliodas' face and my core. That's when I spot it. My underwear is pink. Gah!