Third person POV-
"Aren't you hungry Ellie" Veronica asked her sister while she herself took a bit if everything from the luxurious buffet.
"Huh?" Elizabeth asked.
She had been in her own thoughts and hadn't heard Veronica's question.
Veronica sighed and gestured to the buffet. "Hungry?" She tried again.
"Ah..no I'm not hungry"
"Are you not feeling well or something?" Veronica asked, concerned that Elizabeth had a stomach ache or something.
"I'm feeling just fine, I think I just spoiled my dinner by eating a bowl of strawberries" Elizabeth said a big embarrassed.
Her plan hadn't even worked! It hadn't taken her mind off of Meliodas at all.
Once again Elizabeth turned her gaze to where she had seen meliodas stand just a few seconds ago.
Veronica saw her look somewhere else and so she tried to follow Elizabeth's gaze, and she was thoroughly disappointed hen she saw that her sister was looking at the demon king.
"Ellie...don't get too hung up on a beast like that!" Veronica scolded.
Elizabeth felt a sudden urge to scold her sister back and defend Meliodas, but she wasn't ready for her sister to know that she had actually been full on kissing that so called beast.
Instead Elizabeth just ignored Veronica, and continued to look at Meliodas from afar.
'What is it about him that's made me fall so hard?' She wondered.
'Is it how he make me feel so confident and special, and so very comfortable around him.
How he make her feel so...so...Loved' she kept on wondering, but halted at the word "love"
'It's not love! It can't be! It's just a crush that we've both acted upon!' She screamed at herself.
She was slightly terrified at how quickly she drew these kinds of conclusions.
"Ellie!" Veronica scolded, now louder, since Elizabeth has just ignored her the last time.
"Am I not even allowed to choose where I look?" Elizabeth responded irritatedly.
Veronica's overprotectiveness was really beginning to bug her.
Before the slightly taken aback Veronica didn't get to answer before Elizabeth began walking away.
Elizabeth had had enough for the evening, so without excusing herself she left and went to her room.
Veronica was now angry, but choose not to follow.
Meliodas however saw her leave, and also noted that she seemed somewhat hurt and angry, so he excused himself from his conversation with Ban and Merlin and discreetly followed Elizabeth.
He had to be quick though and follow her on her heels, because if he lost her he wouldn't know where she was going.
"Hey hey! hang on!" He called out for her when they were far enough from the dining hall to not get interrupted.
She stopped immediately, shocked that someone had actually followed her.
"Meliodas? What is it?" She asked slightly concerned when she saw that it was him.
After all there had to be a reason he had ran after her.
"That look on your face...I saw it when you left and thought you could need some comforting" he says kindly and stepped forward to take on of her hands in his.
"That's...all?" She asked. But truly it was more of a statement than a question.
He kept on being so kind towards her, in every possible situation.
Instead of answering Meliodas raised the hand that wasn't intertwined with he's, and put it on her cheek, softly stroking it.
It was only then that Elizabeth realized she had started to cry.
Embarrassed she quickly tried to dry up her tears, but it was an impossible feat.
"Why?...why am I-?..." Elizabeth trailed off.
"Where's your room? Is it nearby?" Meliodas asked.
Who knows what others might think if they saw this go down here in the middle of a hallway.
"Mmmhm" Elizabeth hummed and nodded.
Without thinking too much if it she led Meliodas down one more hallway and then into her room.
Being in the safety of her room Elizabeth sat down on the small couch she had in the corner and pressed her face into Meliodas's chest, still while sobbing.
"Elizabeth..what happened?" He asked, he had seen she had been talking with her sister Veronica, but didn't have the slightest idea what they could've been talking about.
"It can't ever be can it?! Why do I even want it to be?! What are all these emotions coursing through me!?" She asked desperately.
"Oh Elizabeth...I though we had worked through this.." Meliodas said softly.
He felt bad, because he knew that this Elizabeth had a very real link to the goddess Elizabeth, which meant that the love the goddess Elizabeth felt for Meliodas must've been transmitted to this Elizabeth, but without the memories of the time they spent together in the past life these emotions must feel like a tsunami of confusing emotions that she couldn't quite place.
"Me too...I'm just-it's so confusing" she said and curled more into him.
"Tell me what I can do for you and I will" he said, stroking the top of her head.
It was as if something clicked within Elizabeth, and before she could truly think it over the words rushed out.
"Kiss me" she says and pushed away, so that he would actually have a chance to kiss her.
Meliodas was definitely taken aback.
He had thought she just needed him here, perhaps keep stricken her hair.
But if a kiss is what she wanted, and needed then he would gladly.
Elizabeth raised up from the couch and that way Meliodas quickly brought her lips into a soft kiss
But surprisingly, soft wasn't what Elizabeth needed at that moment.
She pressed harder against his lips, and the kiss was much more insistent than their first, both Meliodas and Elizabeth pushing themselves into one another. Meliodas's hands moved to be around her waist and he pushed her back onto the couch, not breaking the kiss. He knelt between her legs as they wrapped around his back and her hands moved to be draped around his neck.
Before the kiss got too heated, Meliodas pulled back a little, knowing that if he continued he wouldn't be able to stop.
"Like that? M'lady?" Meliodas teased, using the title she had specifically asked him not to use.
She pouted a bit, but luckily her tears had stopped flowing, and he could tell that the pout was just an act to keep a rising smile away from reaching the surface.
"Oh? Won't you smile for me?" He asked teasingly and put his forehead against hers.
When she kept on pouting he knew he had to take to other techniques.
"Kyaaa!" Elizabeth yelped as she felt Meliodas's fingers on her rib cage.
Her face face flushed and she began laughing uncontrollably
"There's the Elizabeth I know and love! Aww look at that smile, how cute!" Meliodas Said. It didn't quite register to him that he just admitted to loving her.
Elizabeth made a mental note to address that later, but right now she couldn't even speak anymore, the tickling combined with compliments was a far too powerful combination.
"Hey Elizabeth, My idea of keeping your hair down was really a good idea wasn't it" Meliodas chuckled.
At least it had been, but now that she was wriggling so much he could practically see her hair getting tangled up.
"Yehe-yehehehes! Plehehehease dohohohon't!" Elizabeth laughed, looking up at Meliodas as he stopped his assault completely and tilted his head to the side.
"Hmm? Don't what?" Meliodas questioned, wondering for a second if this trick would even work.
"Tickle me!" Elizabeth said, not having caught onto what Meliodas was doing.
"Okay!" He says gleefully and started again, wiggling fingers travelling from the bottom to the top of Elizabeth's rib cage and back, sending her back into a fit of laughter.
"H-HEHEHEY! THAHAT'S NOHOHOT FAIHIHIHIR!" She was squirming left and right on the couch. Whenever she tried to grab Meliodas's hands, they would just move up to her underarms, making her snap his arms back down.
"Who said I was playing fair?" meliodas chuckled, but he decided to show mercy just this once.
And so he stopped his assault.
"At least I got you to smile" Meliodas grinned.
"Y-yeah but you cheated!" Elizabeth giggled, then her face turned soft and a loving smile found its way onto her lips.
"Meliodas?...Do you realize...what you said before?" She asked.
Meliodas thought she looked breathtaking in that moment. Whatever it was it had her eyes shining like the sun rays reflecting in the surface of the ocean.
"When I tricked you?" He asked, completely oblivious to his own confession.
"N-no...just when you began tickling me.."
Meliodas searched his memory for a few seconds before he remembered Exacly what he had said.
A blushing Meliodas was a very very rare sight, but that's what Elizabeth saw right then and there.
He smiled through his blush, and kindly kissed her forehead.
"I know exactly what I said" he told her.
She remained quiet as if she was expecting a "but".
"And I meant it" he continued.
Her eyes widened completely, and her heart started beating so fast that she feared it would go overdrive and shut down.
"We've only known each other for a few days...how can you be so sure?" She asked.
Of course she wanted to know his reasoning, but she also hoped his answer could help her figure out if these feelings she had for him was love.
"Haven't I already told you?"
"You says it felt as if you knew me forever, but that's hardly an answer"
"No?"
"No"
"Hmm, maybe you're just my soulmate" Meliodas says and started to attack her face with small kisses.
Elizabeth's new what soulmates were, they were portrayed in a lot of the romance novels she loved reading, but she always had the understanding that soulmates actually weren't a real thing.
Now she was beginning to doubt it.
"You...you think so?" Elizabeth stuttered.
Meliodas tilted his head a bit to the side and grinned.
"Let me rephrase. I know so..."
"But how?" She pressed.
She was personally struggling with the "how" part herself so she really wanted to know how Meliodas could be so sure.
Meliodas had already decided that he wouldn't tell Elizabeth about her past life.
It would only be confusing, and he needed to look towards the future now.
A future he hoped he could share with Elizabeth.
"You make me feel whole...like a part of me I didn't even know existed was missing before I met you..." Meliodas explainer, and suddenly Elizabeth understood.
She had always been searching for something.
She had always told herself that she was longing for adventure since she was stuck in the castle most of the time as a child, but ever since she became a knight and actually started going on adventures she figured out that that wasn't it.
She had spent the last many years trying to figure it out...she would've never guessed that that missing puzzle piece would be the demon king, Meliodas.
"Get it?" Meliodas asked, a bit unsure since she hadn't said, nor moved since he gave his explanation.
"Y-Yeah...yeah..." Elizabeth said, and nodded with a shaky voice.
She was on the verge of tears, but she had already sobbed into his chest one time that day so she would do her upmost to make sure it didn't happen a second time.
She was about to lean up to kiss him again when a knock on the door brought them both back to the real world.
Elizabeth grew terrified as she saw the handle go down, and then the door rustled, but didn't open.
"Did you lock it?" Elizabeth whispered to Meliodas as quietly as she could, as both hurried to get up from the couch.
"Of course" Meliodas responded just as quietly and began looking around the room for an escape.
"Ellie open up already.." sounded the tired voice of Elizabeth's older sister, Veronica.
"Of all people-" Meliodas started but was forced to shut up as he was forcefully pushed into a closet by Elizabeth.
"Coming!" Elizabeth called frantically as she closed the closet doors on the still baffled Meliodas.
And just as she sayid Elizabeth ran to the door, turned the key and opened it for her sister to walk in, seemingly haven forgotten about their little verbal fight in the dining hall.
"Oh Ellie..have you been crying?" Veronica asked after the door had been closed.
Elizabeth guesses her eyes still was red.
"Yeah...but only for a little while"
"I just don't want you to be hurt...that's my job" Veronica said, and raised her hand to stroke Elizabeth's hair
"I don't need you to protect me Veronica..." Elizabeth says and stepped out of reach of Veronica's hand.
"You always judge people so easily...so what if he is a demon? That doesn't mean he isn't a good man. Over the time he's been here I've gotten to know him in a more personal level, and I'm telling you...I'm baffled. He's kind, funny, serious when it counts, and understanding...you just don't see that, because as soon as you heard the word demon you closed your mind off to-"
"Okay that's enough!" Veronica says rather roughly, cutting off Elizabeth's rant.
"Now let ME tell YOU something. You always see the best in people, and god bless you for that, but it isn't always a good thing...that demon of yours, Meliodas can be found written about in old scriptures...the stories we here about demons with sharp teeth are scary enough, but the real horrors are the demons like him, the knew that can actually think their actions through, and still do something so horrible.." Veronica says and wrapped her arms around herself.
The truth was that she was scared of the demon clan.
"They eat souls, burn down villages, kill people like you Ellie!"
"..W-Why like me?" Elizabeth asked, having completely forgotten about the demon in her closet.
"You're half Druid..a human with partial goddess magic residing within you. Demons kill goddesses and those who side with the goddesses!"
"Veronica...you're talking about a war that raged 300 years ago. Times such as those have come to an end..."
"All it takes us a simple command from their king and it could all start over again!"
"...I want you to leave now" Elizabeth told her sister firmly after a short pause.
At first Veronica looked like she was gonna protest, but in the end she just let out a sigh and stormed out, slamming the door hard behind her.
Elizabeth remained standing in the middle of the room, but then Meliodas crawled out of the closet and gave her a grateful and yet sympathetic smile.
"Thank you for standing up for me...but what she said was true..." Meliodas said and brought the still frozen Elizabeth into a hug.
She wasn't gonna cry.
She wasn't really sad at all.
She was just tired. Tired of the fact that nobody around her could see the truth.
"But you won't...start another war, I mean" Elizabeth stated, matter of factly.
"No, never" Meliodas thought, and shivered at the memories of the war 300 years ago.
Why would he ever want that again?
Elizabeth felt his shiver and pulled away to look at him with a questioning look in her eyes.
"You battled during the war, right?...will you..tell me about it?"
Meliodas was a bit baffled by the request, but before he could answer she continued.
"I just feel like it's a part of your past I need to know if we're...gonna do this" she said, and clearly Veronica's words had planted a seed that Elizabeth herself couldn't pick up on.
"...I was younger...not that much though...I was still an adult when my father, the Former king called for me to discuss a new plan on how to kill off the goddess clan.
His plan was to take half of his power, and split that half into 10 pieces, and then grant those pieces to worthy warriors.
And I was chosen to be the leader of this new group, which we would call the 10 commandments"
"I've read about them. Faith, love, pacifism, patience, piety, purity, repose, reticence, selflessness, truth..each one bearing their own curse"
"Yes, I held the commandment of love. Anyone in my presence who held hatred within their heart would be unable to harm another, the again this would also include me..."
Elizabeth waited patiently for the continuation but could see that he had a hard time thinking about his dark past.
It hurt remembering how he had once been.
He continued.
"But that wasn't a problem...because I felt nothing"
Elizabeth's eyes widened.
He was such a kind man, clearly filled with emotion.
This was his past?
It was hard to fathom.
"This way it was easy for me to kill my prey...that's basically the story of most of my life...kill kill kill...but the time did come when I realized how wrong I had been...I slowly changed into the man I am today, and so I joined stigma to help overthrow the demon clan" Meliodas Explained, but remembered to not mention the goddess Elizabeth.
"You betrayed your own?" Elizabeth asked a as maxed that he had the courage to do such a thing.
"Yes I did...not something I'm proud of, but it was necessary at the time"
"And then you killed your father?" Elizabeth guessed what happened next.
"After regaining the trust of the people, yes"
"Hmmm...you don't sound like you're all that bad to me. Yes, you've made mistakes, but I can clearly tell that you've regretted it, and is trying to make up for it bit by bit" Elizabeth concluded and softly trailed her fingers through Meliodas's wild hair.
"Not many people would think that way after what I've just told them...actually I was going easy on myself, I was so much worse.." Meliodas said sadly.
There was nothing Meliodas was more ashamed of than his past self.
"Keyword: "was"...now you're a great man, a great uncle and a great king" Elizabeth said, trying to remember the few things she actually did know.
"I need you to be open with me Meliodas...I can't have you bottling all this stuff up, or one day you'll shatter from the weight of it"
Meliodas looked at Elizabeth like she was the jewel of the world.
"You're perfect" he told her lovingly, making her giggle at his sudden mood change.
"And you're cheesy" she told him jokingly.
Soon after, they parted.
Elizabeth stayed in her room and Meliodas went on his way to go find his.
For the two of them the only negative they were currently facing was the overprotective Veronica.
Little did they know...that things were about to get a whole lot worse.
