Too Late
By JacklynnFrost
︵‿︵‿୨College Sophmore୧‿︵‿︵
Meliodas follows the green lines on the wall to baggage claim, fishing his phone free to hold down the power button. The screen flashes to life and a sad smile grazes his lips as he sees the three missed messages. His green eyes stay dull and flat, but the thought that at least they are talking again after all these months of nothing is a comfort.
She's on her way home too, for the funeral. Their messages at the beginning of college were constant, but when she went off for her first year they slowed to a trickle before stopping altogether. Elizabeth had remembered his birthday though, her gift still linked to his car keys. He answers her, confirming his safe landing while waiting in the thick of people around the moving conveyor belt for his bag.
The day blurs. He remembers arriving home, that it feels the same- empty and dark-, without him in it. Zeldris arrives a few hours after him, noting something similar about how, "dad didn't really live here anyway, so it doesn't feel weird that he's not home." Their housekeeper only works a few hours a week now that Meliodas and Zeldris are grown, but a casserole is in the fridge as a bonus with a note from her expressing her condolences.
They talk, but with the both of them out of it and dazed, neither of them speak of anything deep. Sleeping is easier but still not restful, the two of them up in the night and in another part of the world, Elizabeth is too.
She flies in the next day. He answers his door and she's still in her travel clothes with her taxi driving out of his driveway, her rolling bag sitting upright beside her on his porch. No words are spoken but she embraces him so fully he feels the cracks of himself seal up, the gears that have seized start to jerk to life once more. He falls into her, Elizabeth supporting more of his weight than he intends as his eyes fill and for the first time since he heard the news, he cries.
Elizabeth is a big help, her family stepping up to organize the wake. The brothers have their father cremated, as he wished, the urn on a table with his pictures. The big one is the older man in his suit, posing professionally but the others are all when his sons were younger, when their mother was still alive. So few existed of their family together after her death.
Meliodas is regretful that he didn't make more of an effort, but the bar had been set at such a distance he just accepted it. A blur of people come, talking to him and his brother but the only thing he really remembers is Elizabeth checking on him, touching his elbow or fixing his suit jacket every fifteen minutes or so. She makes sure the food and drinks are organized just so, ready for guests. His eyes find her form often, her presence a comfort and he knows that all the distractions and other women he's been trying to start something with mean nothing.
He can't fool his own heart, and he's been trying since they stopped talking.
But, it's not the right time. His aunt, in her best clothes which smells heavily like mothballs, forces him into a hug to tell him, "Your father has plans for you. A lawyer will be calling this week. Be prepared for everything to change." She pulls back, her wrinkling face crinkled in a sad smile, "He loved you so much, the both of you." He's stunned, his stomach rolling as he does have an inkling of what she means. Dad wanted him to follow in his footsteps, take over the family business but he had very little interest in weapons dealing.
Zeldris gets assaulted next by the old bat and Meliodas steps away, needing some air, to get away from all the guilt that follows his thoughts of resisting his father's wishes. Because, he doesn't want the life his father made for him. He fears the legal mess their dad left as he, no doubt, will try to trap Meliodas into doing what he wants- it's been his parenting style for all Meliodas' life.
He settles when he slips out the back door and leans his elbows on the railing of the deck. The world is still, the fall trees having lost most of their leaves. It was like the wind itself knew not to bother the torn man, as he is a few breaths away from shredding entirely. The door cinches open, a soft sliding of the glass and his shoulders tense, ready to snap as he is expecting Zeldris. All the aggression is zapped away with one soft sound.
"Meliodas?" she whispers, her steps slow and careful.
"Why don't you talk to me anymore?" His voice chokes, his throat closing in and he has to swallow tightly, his neck arching back to help him breathe. It's quiet again, her approach stopping and his shoulders tense once more, not wanting a fight. He didn't want to put her in a tough spot, but to know- to understand what he did to push her away.
"I..." Elizabeth starts, from behind him she shifts, her face flaring with pink as she can't tell him now. She knows him, he tries to hide so much of his feelings but she's always been able to see through those walls and right now he is breaking. "I want to be close again, like we were." She hopes that's enough and as his tension eases she closes the gap between them, her hand finding his side to rub up and down in comfort.
"Please." Meliodas meets her concerned gaze with so much emotion inside she can't pin one down. He's angry, upset, but somehow through all the turmoil on his face she knows he will be okay because the main thing shining through is his determination. "Promise me we'll always be close. That we'll," he swallows, his eyes pinching closed before his face sets hard before he bores into her fiercely. "That no matter what we'll always have each other."
Elizabeth nods, slowly. Her voice is thin but her heart is full, her chest suddenly too small to hold all the feelings growing in her heart. "I promise," she vows, truly meaning it as falling back into their easy closeness is the path of least resistance for her.
She closed him off for her own emotional wellness, thinking her feelings are one-sided, but to help him, she'll bleed so he doesn't have to.
Yet, she can't bring herself to tell him, while they are together for their sad visit home nor after when they message every day and video-chat often, that she is dating someone else. Her attempts are weak and she knows she must, but it doesn't ever leave her lips and emotionally she does bleed. Guilt, longing, and bull-headed determination taking turns tearing her up... but she is so happy to have Meliodas so close in her heart again.
He had never truly left it, even when she's with Mael, it's Meliodas she thinks of, but she uses her head and not her heart in this decision. After all, Meliodas hasn't ever crossed that line, she holds onto his prom rejection like gospel, not aware he thinks she doesn't remember nor that to him her kisses are valued as his greatest experience.
︵‿︵‿୨Post Graduation୧‿︵‿︵
She's getting married.
Meliodas stands in the living room of his home, staring at the message she just sent. Elizabeth has been home now for three days after her graduation and each of them, she has invited him over for dinner... and each time he's been busy. He had to meet with the CEO and that went late, then the Derieri account flagged and then he had to fix a lost shipment which he is still trying to hunt down as it's logged as having gotten on the plane but it wasn't there when it landed.
None of that mattered now. He shakes his head, his chaotic hair flapping with the move. She had wanted to see him every night since she's been back and he thought he had time. He had plans to tell her, to wine and dine her, but he has been so tight and wound up since he took over his legacy. The business his father left him.
He is good at it, meeting all expectations and expanding, he fell into this role so easily, like he had this whole other person inside him this entire time. But this. He reads the message again, 'Meliodas, I wanted to tell you in person but it seems I have run out of time. Mael is flying in tonight. I want you to meet him. We're getting married at the end of this summer and I hope you two will become friends.'
Anger flashes hot through his blood, his face growing redder and he starts to pace back and forth in his empty house that's too clean. Unlived in. "She promised!" he snarls, but he catches his face in the mirror and the set of his jaw, the rage on his face, it reminds him of his father. Just as quickly as the boiling came, it vanishes. "Oh," he exhales, his hand slowly raising his phone closer to look at his history.
Over the last few months, close to the entire time he's been trying to do right by his family, after graduating himself last year, he's missed so many of her calls... voice chats that he replied to with stupid excuses. Texts she's sent, one a day for so long, that he sometimes reacted to, but rarely shared anything of his life.
"I... I became my father," he warbles, and he realizes too late that the cost is too high. Then, he switches over to Zeldris and the messages he's left, the calls he's not answered. "Fuck," Meliodas hisses, hitting send as he needs his brother's help. He doesn't recognize himself, he isn't living the life he wants and Elizabeth... her getting married snaps him out of it.
"Meliodas?" Zeldris answers, his voice tinged with shock. He can't blame him, he doesn't.
"I need your help." Meliodas croaks, his fist forming so tight he knows he's broken the skin of his palm with his fingernails. "I want to be me again, I want to sell it all. We'll split it, I just can't legally sign it all away without you."
Silence follows, Meliodas is left wavering, his heart pounding, his head swimming but he stares into himself in that mirror. Viciously tearing himself down for not stepping up for Elizabeth, for not telling her or even sticking to his own goals. He'd wanted to open a simple bar and grill not so long ago, what had happened to him?
"Yeah, man." Zeldris hesitates, "let me make some arrangements and we can sort this out. I'll stay for a while." Meliodas wants to deny it, that it's unnecessary for him to come but deep in the pit of his gut, he knows he needs his brother right now.
"She's... getting married." Meliodas confesses, his voice breaking, going breathy and thick but he squares up as he hears Zeldris curse on the other end. "Text me your flight info, I'll pay for it." He pushes his feelings down, a headache forming from the effort. "I need to dismantle what father left us and start feeling around for buyers." Meliodas doesn't want to prolong this feeling and just as Zeldris starts, his tone understanding and pleading, he cuts him off. "Thanks for this. See you soon." He ends the call, wide-eyed as he finally sits down and tries to reply to Elizabeth.
It takes him almost an hour to realize nothing he types is right and leaves her message as read, unable to reply. He doesn't know what time it is, he hasn't eaten but he climbs the stairs and flops on his prettily made bed with too many stupid pillows, finding sleep only for the peace of feeling nothing.
For five days Meliodas buries himself in tearing apart the business and when Zeldris comes, the whole thing comes down a lot faster. He doesn't push Meliodas to talk, just works at his side like a true right hand, showing his keen mind and his attention to detail, impressing his older brother. "You would have been brilliant at this," Meliodas remarks one night over the few bites of Chinese food he's managed to eat.
Zeldris snorts, "Not like you." He means it as a compliment but Meliodas puts his food container down and looks at his phone. He hasn't replied and she hasn't texted or called like she usually does, they have never gone more than a few days without reaching out to one another. "I never wanted this though, and I'm glad you realized you don't either before too much of your life has passed you by."
Meliodas knows his brother is referencing their father and he looks to the green-eyed man scarfing down orange chicken, his hair gelled up out of his face to make spikes. "Yeah," he agrees, but his stomach turns and he pushes down the bubble of tension he's been holding on too. Meliodas knows he is too late, too much of his life has passed him by because Elizabeth has gone on without him.
Why did he think she would have the same policy she did in high school, that she would be focusing on her work and not explore her options of partners? How could he, for even a moment, think that the stunning and perfectly formed Elizabeth would be waiting for him when he's never pursued her. It is too late, and in the end he has very little to show for all his hard work.
The business falls and there are reporters for a while, Zeldris staying for the brunt of it and defending his brother's choices. Their competition speaks up, trying to clamor for their business but Meliodas slowly falls from the spotlight, shutting himself in until the fanfare fades. He starts looking into his own venture and in the city over, he buys an old building that needs a lot of work but is in a great location.
Meliodas starts to pick himself up, only faltering when an invitation comes by mail. A lacey, frilly little thing, inviting him to Elizabeth and Mael's wedding ceremony. He looks over to her father's house, knowing she doesn't live there. He's heard she lives in the city with her fiance, that they share an apartment now that she's graduated. Meliodas vacillates about it, but finally sucks it up and texts her.
'I'm sorry.' He sends, starting on a much longer and deeper explanation of his feelings and what he's been going through but she texts back quickly.
'No, it's okay. I've been keeping up on the news! I know you've been swamped with all that.' He reads her words three times before backspacing everything he's written. With a heavy heart, he plays it off, and they pick up where they left off in their friendship, neither of them expressing their true feelings.
It's three weeks later that they finally have plans to get together. Meliodas comes home early from laying the tile in his bar, which needs much more work than he thought, to shower and shave. He throws on his red hoodie and a pair of jeans, he even starts cooking as the time of her arrival ticks ever nearer.
They haven't seen one another in months, before all the chaos of her marriage and his business collapsing. It was at her graduation, and Meliodas hadn't stayed long after dinner. He doesn't remember what was so important that he had to leave, and although he hates himself in that moment just a touch more than usual, the feeling fades as the bell rings in quick session.
Meliodas turns down the burners to simmer, wincing at the sight of his shriveling chicken and setting the oven to 'warm', before trotting to the door. As soon as it's open Elizabeth all but falls in with two medium-sized cupcake boxes in her arms that she quickly deposits on the table beside the door. She's in yoga pants, her hair tied up on top of her head and her face is fresh, almost no makeup at all. His breath is stolen at the sight of her. He stands with the doorknob in his grip, the entrance open wide as he watches her move while so many feelings that ever glow in him are awakened into a roaring fire.
"Thank you so much for helping me with these RSVP's. I know I should have done them as they came in but I just got overwhelmed so fast. Mael has such a big family and there is so much to do, I had no idea!" When the boxes are on the table, she turns to smile at him, pushing off her shoes by the heels before saying, softly, "Hi."
"Hi." Meliodas quips, closing the door absentmindedly. "That's a lot of RSVP's, I thought it would only take a half hour to get through but that... that's gonna take us hours." She winces, a light dusting of a flush covering her cheeks.
"I downplayed it some so you'd help." Elizabeth admits, her bottom lip finding its way between her little white teeth and she nibbles on it. He nods, not caring what he's doing with her or why as he watches the little moves of her mouth.
"Don't do it," he whispers a rush of his innermost thoughts as they grow too large for him to hold back any longer. Elizabeth's brows furrow, her lip popping free to shine with the trace amounts of spit there under the entranceway light.
"Do what?" she inquires, making the move to tuck her hair back but it's already tied up and he knows that means she's nervous. She's always plays with her hair when she's anxious about something.
"Don't marry him." Meliodas stands straighter, staring into her with a resolve he's been storing up for this exact moment. "I've loved you since the seventh grade, I've been waiting for you." His confession is heavy, lifting off his chest and he breathes deeply, feeling like it's the first time he's been able to in years. "Tell me it's not too late for us," he pleads, stepping toward her, wanting to hold her but resisting in case this isn't what she wants.
She stares forward, lost in her thoughts with her mouth open and her eyes overly wide. Her hands twist together in front of her stomach, rising slowly to cover her heart and the swell of her cleavage. "You..." Elizabeth mumbles, shaking her head and trying to process this when she's shut this romantic path down. "But you didn't..." She trails off as she focuses on him, the soft pleading in his green eyes everything she's always wanted to see there and the feelings she's kept so tightly locked away burst from their prison.
In a snap she closes the distance between them, their bodies colliding as if magnetized and he wastes not a second to caress his lips to hers. His hand wraps around the back of her neck, as if to lock her in place, his other arm taking her waist, knowing this is how it should have always been between them, where he's always belonged. They line up, her hands fisting at his shirt before tugging at the zipper of his hoodie giving herself more access to him.
He steps closer, her footing unbalanced and he compensates as they bump into the table behind her, jostling the vase and the boxes of RSVPs. Elizabeth pushes his hoodie backward over his shoulders and he shrugs out of it, moving quick to get his hands back on her. Something is burning between them, something urgent and consuming.
Their kiss deepens, their tongues dancing in tandem and one hand weaves into his hair to pull him closer as the other tugs at the hem of his T-shirt. He beat her to it though, lifting her shirt up and she complies with her hands up, her hair cascading down when the fabric is free. Meliodas soaks her in, groaning low at the sight of her lacy bra holding back the lovely swells of her chest, how her waist curves and her belly button dips, but her hips, they need to be felt.
Meliodas cannot resist, he tosses the shirt away before his hands grip her hips, his thumbs moving up over the bones before his wide burning eyes meet her. She's unfocused, breathing heavily as she returns the favor, tugging at his shirt and he has to tear his hands from her soft flesh to give her what she wants. Before the discarded fabric hits the polished floor, before Elizabeth even takes in the muscles man before her, she presses her chest to his, arching away from the table to feel his skin sliding against hers.
There is a jolt, at first contact, a rush of hot sparks between them and their frantic touching increases. Meliodas, straining in his pants from the start of this, lines up against her yoga pants to rub against her. Her back hits the table once more but her sounds spur him on, her hands slipping and gripping as her lips find his neck, kissing up until she reaches his ear and those pretty little white teeth nibble just enough to push him over the edge of madness.
He palms her ass, pressing her against him, grinding as his hot breath toys at her flesh. "Fuck, Elizabeth," he groans, wanting her chest at face level but refusing to separate their cores. She moans his name on the next stroke against her, hitting her sweet spot and on the retreat he lifts her the few inches it takes to slide her ass over the edge of the table. He straightens his knees to line them up once more, his back curving to dip a kiss at her collar bone, trailing a path down to her cleavage.
She rocks against him, her hand fisting in his hair and her other bracing on the table behind her, knocking the vase over to wobble against the wall at her back. "Please..." she begs, his mouth teasing her and his hands find the clasp of her bra. Elizabeth makes it as easy as possible for him as it pops free, her breasts begging to be fondled and he leans back as his hands shake to lower the straps down her arms.
Elizabeth shifts, trying to help but her hand hits the edge of the boxes on the table and they tumble to the floor, the cards scattering in an arch over the tile. She freezes, stunned at the sight before her and when Meliodas continues his trails down her arms she flinches back. Her arms folding over her barely covered chest, keeping her bra mostly in place with the hold.
He shakes his head, leaning away but keeping himself pressed against her throbbing center. "You okay?" He gruffs, not knowing what has upset her. "Too fast?" Meliodas questions, his brain too slow to come up with any other explanation. Her hand rears back, her face set hard and his brows furrow a second before he's shocked out of his haze with her solid smack across his cheek.
"You NEVER said a word!" Elizabeth shouts, his mind clearing quickly as she pushes at his shoulder. He complies, stepping back from her as she slides off the table. "It is too late! It is! I'm getting married!" Her voice cracks, her eyes filling and Meliodas stops his retreat, wanting to comfort her, knowing this is his fault. "After prom, I thought you, no, I knew then you weren't interested! Why now? Huh? Because I'm taken! Will the interest pass once I'm available again!?" She reaches a screeching level of loud but he understands, stunned.
"You remember that?" He sputtered, his hands rising to tug at his hair on either side over his ears. "You, but that night-"
"How dare you!" Elizabeth isn't listening to him and he doesn't blame her. "The wedding is weeks away! Oh god, where is my shirt?" She sobs, biting her fist as she slaps away his reaching hand in an attempt to comfort her. "I cheated... after all this time, you!" Her narrowed eyes refocus on him. "It took me so long to let you go and you've fucked everything up!"
Elizabeth bends to the ground, snatching up his red hoodie and storming to the door as she maneuvers her arms through it. She swings the door open forcefully as she zips up and rushes down the stairs and through the yard before Meliodas fully processes what's just happened. "Elizabeth!" He calls out but her head whips around so fast, her face set in utter sorrow with thick tear tracks down her pinkened face, that he stops on his porch, pulling at his hair once more as he watches her go. "I'm sorry!" He yells at her back, knowing now, with his cheek and cock throbbing, that he should have suffered in silence and let her life go on without him.