A/N:

BIG THANK YOU to the two reviewers who told me about the issues with chapter 8. I have no idea what happened with the upload, as everything looked totally fine on my end. It wasn't until I went through from the outside that I saw what you guys saw. Hopefully this re-upload fixed whatever went wrong.

To my reviewers:

SerenityDeath: Getting interesting? I was hoping it would have been interesting sometime in the previous six chapters haha! That review got a chuckle out of me.

Guest: I do love a good slow burn. I love a whirlwind romance as much as the next person, but sometimes the subtleties are far more fun to craft. I'm sure we've all seen the scene of Pride and Prejudice where Mr. Darcy helps Lizzie into the carriage. Pure fire.

Guest: Thank you! Glad you're sticking with the story :)

Elizabeth stared at Melidoas's bedroom door, trying to decide if she wanted to stay or leave.

On the one hand, she had little reason to stay. On the other hand, she had little reason to leave. It was quite a conundrum.

She let out a little sigh as she turned back to face the room, reaching a hand up to worry the necklace that no longer sat at her chest.

She scowled at the cheerful fire.

This was an opportunity, she suddenly realized. An opportunity to learn more about him.

She cast a glance about the unusually tidy room, sparing a moment to smooth down the rumpled covers of his bed.

The action made her flush just the tiniest bit. She hadn't had much time to reflect on the situation earlier, but now she remembered the full betrayal of her body and how it had reacted to his in that moment. She hadn't felt desire like that in…had she ever felt that?

Troubling. All of it. And at such a grotesque moment. She yanked down the hem of her nightdress as if in response to this thought.

She sifted through a heap of books from one of the armchairs by the fire. She was surprised to learn he was so well-read, but she supposed it fit in more or less with the rest of his character. He possessed a great deal of intelligence, but he preferred to hide it, to lurk quietly in the corner of a room and learn everything about the residents within without uttering a single word to let on that he'd become wiser.

She was very bothered that he knew about her true nature. She was only realizing this now, but sometime since he'd played his hand, the thought had become a nagging one. The connection she'd felt with him up to this day…was it only because he'd been was playing her for a fool? Earning her trust?

It didn't feel that way. And in truth, she had a hard time imagining him capable of such a thing. But the fact of the matter remained that her life was now in his hands. And she wasn't particularly ecstatic about that fact.

She swept her eyes across the titles of some of the books, noting most of them were about demon history. There was no fiction lying around, nothing that indicated he spent any of his time trying to escape from reality.

It was probably hard for him to do that as the leader of the Ten Commandments.

"Hmm." She murmured to herself, setting a hand on her hip. "Maybe something in here will help me figure out where he's always sneaking off to."

She decided to start with his desk and the mountain of papers that sat in neat little stacks about it. She idly flipped through a few files, but found nothing of interest. It was mostly short summaries of battles, lists of casualties and promotions.

Next she started opening drawers, giving three of them a cursory glance but pausing abruptly when she got to the bottom one.

Thank you.

Her own handwriting, in all its chicken-scratch glory, stared back at her. She gaped at it, too surprised to move for a movement as she considered the meaning of this.

It could've been nothing. It was probably nothing. But the idea that he'd kept something of hers, even something as insignificant as this, was too large to ignore.

And he'd hidden it away. Like it was special.

She took out the note, looking at it for a moment longer before setting it on top of the desk.

What lay underneath it was perhaps even more perplexing. It was a child's drawing, a crude but colorful picture of a house with flowers lining its outside. A strange object appeared to be hurtling toward the roof like some kind of meteor.

Something suddenly made perfect sense to her.

What if that was the reason he disappeared so often? What if he had a child? A child he was desperate to keep out of war and politics, so he kept them isolated?

It was an interesting thought.

Perhaps just as interesting was the one that came afterward, the thought that suggested not only could he have a child, but a lover.

Her mind was spinning in circles.

She knew so little about him. And it seemed everything she did know, she'd deduced through speculation alone. She needed to find a way to learn more, a way that didn't involve chatting up the Ten Commandments or any of the other castle's demonic inhabitants.

She glanced about the room, at the roaring fire and gold-threaded curtains.

Finding a way to talk to him alone would be dangerous. But perhaps not as dangerous as it had seemed the time she'd gone out on the roof. The reason being that Meliodas himself was her biggest threat here, far bigger than whatever punishment she'd earn for sneaking around.

It was a routine reconnaissance venture, one where the Ten Commandments split into five pairs and circled Britannia to scout out their enemy. Normally Meliodas hated those, but in this particular case he was glad to be outside. The night air was a bit too cold as it sliced across his cheekbones, and it was a wonderful change of pace from the stuffiness of his bedroom. The damn fire always made the room too hot, but without it the cold crept into the stones and festered there until he was sleeping in an icebox.

And the goddess hadn't exactly been cooling him down, either.

"You're awfully quiet tonight, brother." Zeldris said, encouraging Meliodas to fly slower until they were of a comfortable speed to speak. "A little worn out?"

It was obvious bait. Meliodas didn't rise to the challenge, merely slanted his brother an annoyed look.

"I'll be honest." Zeldris continued, long accustomed to his brother's moodiness during nighttime missions. "I didn't think you were…well, you hadn't said anything."

"Unlike you, dear brother." Meliodas mustered a dry edge to his tone. "I don't feel the need to air my personal laundry out to everyone in the castle."

Zeldris gave a huff to that statement. "It's supposed to be a great way to relieve stress, Meliodas. You're still looking rather tense."

Sex and violence: Zeldris's two favorite topics of conversation.

"I'm a little more complex than you."

Zeldris guffawed. "Please."

"How are your many conquests, then?" Meliodas asked, not because he wanted to know, but because he desperately wanted to talk about anything unrelated to the goddess girl. "Still swooning over you?"

Zeldris was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. "I'm thinking of making it just the one."

Meliodas almost fell out of the sky in shock. His brother, self-proclaimed conqueror of women, sex enthusiast, and narcissist would deem to settle for one girl?

"I like her." Zeldris said, further surprising his brother. "She's interesting. For a human, I mean."

Interesting? Meliodas glanced around, wondering if he'd somehow been transported to another world. "Are you actually telling me you've decided to have a crush on a human, brother?"

"Crush is a strong word." Zeldris said without venom. "Infatuation, maybe. And I'm not too big to admit that."

His pointed words acted like a knife right through Meliodas's patience, regardless of how much he tried to ignore them.

He wasn't infatuated with the goddess. He was merely cautious, playing his angles. He supposed he couldn't fault his brother for interpreting his interest otherwise- from an outside perspective, it must have looked very different indeed.

"Which one is it?" He asked, glancing at the dark-haired demon. "And what's so special about her?"

"She's very…vocal." Zeldris said with a shark-toothed grin that immediately made Meliodas regret he'd asked. Thankfully, Zeldris continued without prompting. "But she's also interesting. I'm not sure how else to describe it. I like talking to her as much as I like everything else."

This was…problematic. Zeldris was all brawn, little brain. He was easily won over in a game of wits. If her were to devote himself entirely to one girl, Meliodas suspected he'd tire of her quickly. And if that one girl happened to be a human in his employ who was ultimately at his mercy…

Perhaps he was being too jaded, too judgmental. His brother might have been stupid, but Melidoas had certainly met crueler demons.

Meliodas let a sardonic smile curl over his lips. "Why don't you make her mistress of the demon realm while you're at it?"

Zeldris smirked. "Of course. I'll see to it immediately."

Before either of them had been born, before their father had even been born, the Lord of the Demons had declared his lover to be the "official mistress of the demon realm."

A title that was maliciously mocked by all who heard it. The poor girl dealt with it her entire life, long after the demon lord had discarded her for a different model. It was a story that lived in infamy, even this many generations later.

Setting aside the joke, Meliodas decided to say one last serious piece on the situation.

"Do what you must." He said simply. "But remember what I told you that night with Melascula."

"That I should lay off the silver-haired one, because you were already fucking her?"

"No," Meliodas gnashed his teeth together. "The human girls are keeping you fed, brother. If you waste them, we go back to scavenging for scraps each night."

Zeldris waved a hand, unbothered. "Sure, sure."

"Can we get on with this now?" Meliodas asked, eager to fly at greater speed. "I'd like to get some sleep at some point."

Zeldris wordlessly flew faster beside him, and before long they'd taken off into the night.

They didn't arrive back at the castle until midday. While his companions gathered for a late lunch, Meliodas went straight to his room to have a short bath. After nearly falling asleep in the pleasantly warm water, he struggled to his bed and passed out with his nose in the sheets, still stark naked.

He wouldn't wake again for a long time.

He hated night missions. And he would never get tired of saying it. They were always boring, and never failed to royally screw up his delicate sleep schedule. When he blearily opened his eyes, fighting a growing headache, he found he had no idea what time it was.

He dressed sloppily and exited his room, still rubbing sleep from his eyes as he wandered into the dining room.

Nothing was on the table.

He stood there, rubbing his chin as he pondered this. It must have been late- very late.

Wordlessly he swept through the swinging door into the kitchen, where three girls were cleaning dishes and pans.

He didn't recognize any of them, but then his eyes were used to seeking out one girl in particular.

All three of them froze at his presence.

"Um…" He said, regretting having stumbled into their domain. This was probably one of the only places in the castle in which they felt comfortable. "Excuse me. Are there any leftovers?"

Two of the girls glanced at each other. Then, wordlessly, one of them went to the storage closet and started pulling down wrapped items.

"Thank you." Meliodas said, stopping her with a gesture when she started to take down clean dishes. "No, don't bother. I can help myself."

The brown-haired girl's eyebrows turned up, but she merely nodded and left him alone.

He took the food into the dining room, eating by himself and enjoying every moment of it. Once upon a time he'd been the toast of the town, engaging his fellow Commandments with raucous stories at every meal and never missing a chance to shine in the spotlight.

Like most things going on with him as of late, he had no idea when he'd started to change his habits. These days it was just so hard, so damn hard, for him to take pride in being a demon the way he always had. He'd managed to convince himself that it was all a phase, that he'd grow out of it and return to normal. But now that he'd helped Frederick and Azalea with house repairs, and assisted in harboring a goddess fugitive…he couldn't even begin to make sense of his actions.

It was like somewhere along the way, he'd stopped doing what was expected of him, and started acting instinctually. And it was terrifying how far apart those two states of mind seemed to be.

By the time he'd finished eating, the kitchen was dark, and all three girls were gone. He washed his things out and left them to dry before grabbing his favorite brandy, figuring a nice drink by the fire would be the perfect thing to help him relax, maybe even get him to sleep some more so he could wake up at a normal time the next day.

He walked with a lighter step to his room, enjoying the peaceful serenity of the quiet castle. He'd always preferred it like this, when the flickering sconces created an atmosphere of tranquility, rather than the usual dismal feel of the decaying ruins of a once aptly-commanded brand of high-pedigree demons.

A thought that kept him frighteningly neutral as he approached his bedroom door and walked inside.

The fire had been lit, of course, which meant that he was already uncomfortably warm as he set the bottle of brandy on the tiny end table and started moving books onto the floor. He really needed to stop leaving these things everywhere-

He paused, noticing one of his favorites had been left in a different spot.

Right. The goddess girl had had quite possibly spent the night in here. At the very least, she'd had a few minutes alone with his things, and it was clear she'd taken advantage of that time.

He shoved the thought of her sleeping form in his bed far from the front of his mind.

And then he sat, dragging the footstool out so he could recline comfortably in front of the flames.

It wasn't until he'd poured a small bit of brandy into his glass that he began to notice something odd.

It wasn't a particular sound, nor a feeling of energy or magic. It was just a tiny fact that floated to the front of his mind, as easily as he might have noticed a different set of curtains on the window.

"Goddess," He glanced lazily over the back of the chair. "Are you in here?"

A moment of silence. Then, a silver-haired girl reluctantly emerged from beneath his bed. She brushed imaginary dirt from her skirt, no doubt trying to look dignified when she'd just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

He couldn't wipe the amusement from his face. "What were you doing down there?"

"I was just...waiting to make sure it was you." She said, not quite looking him in the eye.

He gave her a curious look. "Why are you here?"

She walked over to stand by the other armchair, the one still covered in books. She looked at him, waiting for permission. He said nothing, didn't even move as he gazed idly in her direction.

It was a test of some kind. Neither of them knew exactly what it merited. But after a moment of thought, Elizabeth began transferring books from the chair to the floor.

The sight of her moving his carefully organized books irritated him, but the feeling was horribly squashed by the dark roar of approval that went through him at her readiness to rise to the unspoken challenge.

Maybe that's why he was drawn to this girl so much- she'd done nothing but that since her first day in this castle.

She sat back in the chair, folding her legs.

His tone was decidedly sardonic as he watched her make herself at home in his private chambers. "Comfy, goddess?"

She winced a little. "Please don't call me that."

"A hateful reminder of your family, is it?"

Her face shut down. "No. It's simply a dangerous word here."

He had to agree with her.

"Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?" He asked a bit impatiently.

"I'm here to talk to you."

"Obviously." He tilted his head at her. "Will you be doing that anytime soon?"

She twisted her hands in her lap, and he internally sighed as he looked toward the fire. There was something inherently relaxing about staring at the confined flames of a fireplace.

Likely she was here because she didn't know his inclinations toward her. And that was fair enough. But because he wasn't exactly certain himself, he decided it would be in his best interests to keep the conversation off of that particular topic.

So he chose one at random.

"Have you ever heard them play music?" He asked, startling the goddess out of her reverie.

"Who?"

"The humans."

She studied him silently. "Do they not have music in the demon realm?"

His sight was lost in the fire, trying to reach a sense of peace that had eluded him many nights in here. "Not in a long time."

She'd never thought about it before, but they didn't have much music in her home world, either.

This was the second sporadic question he'd asked her about the humans. And while his first, the one about marriage, had been odd, this one was telling.

He'd spent time around humans. A great deal of it, if she had to guess. And that was baffling to her. She thought back to her theory about his secret lover, and everything suddenly seemed stranger.

"Is your child human?" She asked, smoothing her skirt out.

He blanched, curling back in his chair so abruptly that it startled her.

"Child?" He demanded to know. "What makes you think I have a child?"

She'd watched his reaction in confusion, but now she found herself hesitating, unwilling to admit her snooping habits from the previous night.

"I…thought that's where you might have been sneaking off to all the time." She finally answered.

He shot her a look of poison. "Where I go in my time off is none of your business."

"Well, no." She agreed. "But I'd like to point out that whatever it is makes you very defensive. Hence the theory of the secret family."

He gave her a sullen look, not rising to the challenge of words.

"And you have to admit that your curiosity of the humans is more than passing." She further pressed. "One can only suspect you've spent time with them."

He jabbed a finger in her direction. "I should have made you leave here yesterday. You were looking through my things."

She neither confirmed nor denied.

"Why humans?" She wondered further. "You have to admit that for someone like you it's a bit…odd."

He looked back toward the fire, pondering his choice of words. He'd never thought it a fascination, not really. He was perhaps as interested in their customs the same way he would have been the Giants, or the Fairies.

They were simply different.

"They're not involved in the war." He finally admitted.

Elizabeth nodded in understanding. "So they're a distraction."

"If you'd like."

"And so am I."

He cut his eyes over to her. "That's either a great compliment to yourself, goddess, or an insult."

"Take whichever you'd prefer." She said, aiming for a cheerful tone. "And…please stop calling me goddess."

"No one can hear us in here." He assured her. "Besides, I refuse to call you by your pseudonym. So unless-"

"Elizabeth." She was surprised at how willingly the information dropped from her lips. Information that had, up until a few days ago, been one of the most taboo things she carried with her.

At his surprised expression, she explained further.

"You already know who I am." She tucked a silver lock of hair from her line of sight.

That shouldn't have told him anything. But somehow, with the confession of her name, he easily slotted her into place in his memory. Two years ago, they'd been in the middle of perhaps one of the bloodiest battles between the demons and goddesses to date. And despite the hundreds he'd slaughtered that day, despite the rage of battle that frothed around him-

He'd paused at the sight of her. She was whispering to one of the demons, but her words seemed to be affecting a whole battalion of troops. It took only a few seconds before the lot of them suddenly dropped their weapons and took off into the sky.

The silver-haired goddess had immediately stepped back into the fight like nothing had happened. Meliodas had watched her, confused, realizing her superiors probably would have approved of that action as much as all the demons would have.

This goddess had the audacity to make herself an enemy of everyone on this battlefield.

Perhaps that was why, even though he'd seen her actions and had a clear shot at her, he had instead turned away to take on a new opponent. Perhaps that was why he hid his smile each time the Ten Commandments complained about the goddess who turned their ranks into cowards. Perhaps that was why she sat beside him now, in an armchair in front of the fire.

Perhaps they'd always been fated to meet.

"Nice to meet you, Elizabeth." He said, smiling at her. It was a little crooked, but entirely genuine. Because the more he got to know her, the more he wondered how a goddess could harbor a soul so similar to his own.

She inclined her head, trying and failing to hide her reaction to the foreign expression on his face. The smile transformed him into a handsome, laid-back sort of fellow, rather than an eternally brooding one who wanted nothing more than to break out of his physical shell.

Just as soon as it had appeared, the smile faded, only to be replaced by a troubled look.

"I should tell you." He said, his tone gravely serious. "My brother intends to take one of yours and make her a…permanent fixture in his nights."

That yanked the rug right out from under Elizabeth's feet. She gripped the armrests of the chair, her eyes flashing to the scene of the dead twin dangling from the ceiling in their living quarters.

She took a calming breath. They were stronger now. All of them were. That would not happen again.

"Who?" Elizabeth asked, loosening her hold on the upholstery.

And right at that moment, Meliodas realized something he'd overlooked up to this point: his brother had ducked that very same question.

Meliodas shook his head. "He didn't say. I'll try and find out. If I do, I'll leave you a note."

She nodded, her thoughts flipping through faces like the pages of a book.

It wasn't Caelia. She would have said something to Elizabeth. That left six other possibilities.

"I have no idea who he's been involved with." She said with no small amount of frustration. "I didn't even know it was happening."

Meliodas gave her a probing look. "Goddess sensibilities?"

She ignored the involuntary flinch that always came from the word, because what he'd suggested was imbecile.

"We do know what sex is is the Goddess Realm." She said, in the driest tone she could manage. "You know-continuation of the race being what it is."

Another smile crept onto his face, this one entirely devoid of humor. "Good to know."

The fire crackled as they stared at each other. Elizabeth felt a bit warm from the flames, though it perhaps could have come from the intensity of his gaze.

She pushed it all down, buried it to the part of her mind that only crept to the surface of her thoughts when she was struggling to sleep at night.

"Is Zeldris rough with the girls?" She asked, her voice timid. "Is it…do you think him capable of that?"

Meliodas drummed his fingers on the armrest, considering the question. "I wouldn't know. I will say that I doubt he's very…creative in the bedroom. At the very least, that might bode well for his lovers."

Elizabeth gave a terse nod, far from comforted by that news.

"No honorific for my younger brother?" Meliodas asked with genuine curiosity. She'd done it the first time they'd ever been on the roof together, but it hadn't been the right time to bring it up.

She flinched a little, turning her head away from him. None of the girls ever referred to Zeldris with an honorific when they talked about him behind his back.

"Sorry." She bowed her head slightly. "Slip of the tongue."

His smirk was wicked. "By all means. Every time someone addresses Zeldris familiarly, he loses an ounce of ego. Approximately one hundred thousand years from now, he will be an appropriately modest individual."

Elizabeth almost smiled.

His breath caught in his throat as he watched her, certain her features would contort in that direction.

But as quickly as the humor passed over her face, it was gone. And he was left staring at a troubled girl who stared into the fire like it would reveal to her all the secrets of the universe.

She'd wanted something from him tonight- he was sure of it. But whatever it was, she'd decided early on to table the discussion for a later time. It left too many opportunities for him to grasp blindly at straws.

At least he'd told her about Zeldris. He'd wrestled with the information, uncertain of what to do with it, but now he was certain he'd followed the right path. Elizabeth would know how to address the situation discreetly, and without rocking the boat.

Perhaps they could prove very useful to each other.

"I haven't forgotten about the fact that you referred to me as your territory." She suddenly said, her tone prim.

He recalled saying that in the heat of the moment, when she'd been flush beneath him on his bed. What a wonderful memory to look back on, although it was clouded by the sense of urgency they'd both felt at the time.

"Better to be mine than his." Meliodas said, meaning it. "I assure you, the indiscretions that occur in here are far more pleasurable for both parties than anything that occurs on his side of the hall."

Her eyes opened wide at the verisimilitude of that brash statement. Meliodas often said things with double meanings, so she looked past the obvious, glancing between him and the fire.

They were associating in an indiscretion right now. That was what he'd meant. He was good at that, at disarming his conversation partners by exploiting a higher intelligence. But she wasn't entirely convinced he was smarter than her- she knew he wasn't. So instead of ignoring his comment, she challenged it.

"Is this particularly pleasurable?" She asked, keeping her stance open.

His face was unreadable, much to her chagrin. "I don't know about you, god-"

He stopped himself. "I don't know about you, Elizabeth, but I often find myself particularly tickled after conversing with you."

"But that's not what you meant." She insisted, her brow furrowing in irritation.

Another slow smile spread across his face- the look of someone who'd just declared checkmate.

"Wasn't it?" He asked, delighting in the frustration that flitted across her face.

The thought of his brother taking this girl to his bedroom was enough to wipe the smirk from Meliodas's mouth. She was too good for him. Most, if not all, of the other girls must have been, too.

Someone with Elizabeth's charisma deserved to be romanced, and properly. She deserved to go to bed with someone who would take the time to make her scream, to make her grip the sheets as she panted in ecstasy.

He'd grown so brazen that he had no problem staring at her as these thoughts flitted through his head. And she stared back, never one to back down from a challenge.

He couldn't read what was written on her face. Not even a little. But he let himself hope that this was one of those moments that existed within their strange parallel, one where they seemed to hold up mirrors between them see only themselves in each other.

In was an indiscretion of the most pleasurable kind.

A/N:

This chapter was a NIGHTMARE to edit. The scene of Elizabeth in his room alone and the following scene with Zeldris and Meldioas were easy, as I wrote those both in one sitting. But for the Meliodas and Elizabeth fireplace scene, I had to stitch together four separately-written bits of dialogue.

This marks the end of my archived chapters. Because of the pandemic, I'm working from home. That affords me ample time to sit and write every day, and I probably average about 10,000 words a day. The unfortunate part of that is that I spread my time around to quite a few other projects. It's likely the weekly updates for this story will cease to exist. Many apologies.