Chapter 8
The next morning comes too fast. I hardly slept as my mind whirled with the unanswered questions I had. Who's Elaine? And who's Liz? What connection do they have to the Sins? I have a feeling they are important, I just can't put my finger on why.
As I walk down the stairs and pull up a seat at the bar, Diane's bright smile greets me. "Mornin' Princess!"
"Good morning, Diane," I return her smile. She sets a plate of food in front of me. "You know you don't have to call me Princess right? Elizabeth is fine when it's just us."
Diane places a thoughtful finger to her chin as she thinks it over. "Eh, Princess will do for now."
Her tone is a bit off, like the one she'd slipped into last night for a split second before it was gone. I say nothing else. I yawn, stretching out all the kinks from my restless night in a strange bed.
"Tired?"
I jump slightly, unsure of where exactly Meliodas came from. I hadn't heard him come down the stairs. "Uh… yeah." I mumble quickly, trying my damnedest not to let a guilty look pass over my face. "New place and all."
Thankfully, Meliodas only shrugs it off.
"Midnight strolls down the street certainly don't help." Diane murmurs from behind the bar the moment the kitchen door closed behind Meliodas.
My eyes go wide, watching her and then darting to the kitchen door. I'd been tailed…
The Sin of Envy leans over the counter, her face inches from mine. "I won't say anything this time. But only because you kept your word and didn't tell whoever you were talking to anything." Her voice is cold as she levels me with a hard stare. "Don't do it again."
I'm too shocked to do much more than nod obediently.
"Good," Diane's face brightens instantly. "It's a rough neighborhood, Princess," that same sugary smile she used yesterday on the thugs crosses her face. "We wouldn't want anything bad to happen to ya."
My jaw slacks slightly. Is she... threatening me?
"What are you guys doing?"
We turn in sync to see King and Ban watching us with curious stares. The two of them are wearing much the same thing as they were yesterday. Diane sends me one last warning glance before she pulls away from me and straightens. She gives the men a blinding smile.
"Just some girl talk," she responds easily.
"Yeah right. Looked more like you two were ready to make out to me." Ban snorts, elbow resting atop King's head. The ginger haired man seems too stunned by Ban's wrongful observation to worry about being used as an armrest.
"We were not!" I insist, my cheeks heating up slightly.
Diane rolls her eyes as she responds to him. "You'd like that too much."
"Well~," Ban draws with a crooked grin. "I wouldn't say no." He pokes King's cheek with his free hand. "Don't think your boyfriend would protest too much either."
King's face lights up in color as he glares daggers at Ban. He shoves the taller man's arm off his head and punches him in the stomach. Ban laughs, easily holding King back with a hand to his forehead.
Diane's giggle draws our attention back to her. She's got a wide smile on her face, eyes only on King as she says, "maybe we will then."
And then she winks.
King's knees buckle and Ban catches him by the scruff of his hood. "You shouldn't joke about things like that so early in the morning, Di. You may kill him," he explains through his chortles.
"Who said I was joking?" She shrugs with a teasing smile.
My mouth drops and Ban just continues to laugh his ass off.
"What the hell's going on out here?" Meliodas quirks a brow at the peculiar situation he finds as he walks out of the kitchen. "Who killed King?" He points at the barely standing man.
"I'm fine!" Said man protests. He wrestles out of Ban's grasp. One step and he trips over his own feet.
Luckily Ban catches him once again, saving him from a faceplant. The taller man heaves him up under one arm and carries him over to the bar. He drops King on the stool near me and takes the empty seat on his opposite side. Ban's care of the shorter man suprises me with how viciously they were arguing last night. Their relationship has to be a lot more complex than I originally thought.
"This is Di's fault," Ban explains with an amused chuckle. "I swear she's going to send him to an early grave."
"Why am I not surprised?" Meliodas shakes his head. "Whaddya do this time?" He accuses Diane with a half hearted glare. Even I can tell he's holding back a grin.
"Just said that I might make out with Princess at some point," she blinks innocently, playing for nonchalance even as a smile fights to overtake her face.
I sink lower into my chair, not sure how to handle the sudden scrutiny I'm under as Meliodas just... stares at me. His eyes crinkle with his obvious enjoyment. I'm half tempted to punch him in the face before he makes, what I'm sure will be, a lewd joke.
"I'd pay to see that," he says casually, gaze still locked with mine.
"Meliodas!" I hiss at him. I can feel the heat crawling up the back of my neck. "I'm a member of the law!"
He quirks a brow and I just know he's fighting back a smile. "And that means you can't make out with a girl? I was under the impression that even cops like to have fun sometimes. You could always make out with me if that's more your thing." He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, smug smirk on his lips.
"I don't want to makeout with Diane! Or you!"
"Ahh," Diane pouts breaking me out of the death glare I was sending at Meliodas. "You don't think I'm attractive?" She gestures down her body. I finally realize what she's wearing. Skin tight, black low riding yoga pants and a tank top that is about two sizes too small for her bust, displaying both a large amount of cleavage and midriff.
I'm really digging myself a hole here. I can't help but respond even though I know they're all just picking on me for their own amusement. "O-of course you are!" I admit with warm cheeks. "But…"
"Don't think she's into girls, Di," Ban comments over the lip of a mug. Is he drinking already? "Though, I bet if we get her drunk enough she would be. She seems like she'd be a closet freak, if ya know what I mean."
I glare daggers at the man. He isn't bothered by my stare one bit.
"Think we'll have to put that to the test," Meliodas nods sagely. "I can see that too."
"You guys are horrible," King finally rejoins the fray. At least one person doesn't seem hell bent on making my stay here as awkward as possible. "Why don't you give it a rest?"
"Don't act so high an mighty," Ban rolls his eyes. "You wanna see it just as much as the rest of us. Hell, she almost has the same body type as Di-"
"Elizabeth's boobs are bigger and butt smaller," Meliodas interjects sending a cheeky grin my way. How the hell does he know that?
"So she's just your type!" Ban continues with a large wave of his hand. The other three Sins laugh.
King's head thumps against the bar. "I hate you all…"
I find myself agreeing with the sulking man. I don't think I've ever been so mortified in my life. They were talking about such… intimate things so openly. I wasn't new to their suggestive ideas but it was not something that was brought up in casual conversation.
"Ah, don't say that," Diane sways over to stand in front of him. King's eyes follow her movements religiously. She bends over the counter, granting everyone a fantastic view down her shirt. King gives her a lazy stare. Diane leans even farther over and presses her lips against his.
"Gross," Ban says almost immediately. "I said I'd be game for you and Princess making out. Not you and King. Get a room if you wanna do that shit."
A content sigh leaves King's lips as she pulls back. "That's not a bad idea," he mumbles. Diane beams and hops over the counter. She grabs King's hand and drags him up the stairs with her.
I stare, completely dumbfounded for the second time that morning.
"Better eat up, Princess, your foods getting cold with all that gawking you're doing," Meliodas says, the mirth in his tone unmistakable. The jackass is getting a kick out of all my reactions.
"I'll be glad when the two of them are done with this phase," Ban grumbles.
Meliodas snorts. "Yeah, right. You're just as happy for them as everyone else is."
"Don't mean I wanna see or hear it all the fuckin' time."
The day goes on and I keep tabs on the four Sins I know. Diane and Meliodas are the only ones who don't seem to leave. King and Ban are in and out of the bar practically all day. I stopped keeping count after the twentieth trip. They always left together, I noticed. And they always seemed to be bickering. If they were doing any kind of sneaking on any of their trips out, they'd be heard from a mile away.
I had attempted to hear what they were saying on more than one occasion. Usually it was just Ban telling King he was a wimp or King telling Ban he was a complete moron. They're conversations got very… colorful at times. Meliodas was usually the only one who even bothered trying to put a stop to it and even he didn't bother most of the time.
Apparently their fights were a norm at the Boar Hat.
Ban would pay my presence no mind. He neither went out of his way to avoid me or acknowledge me. He was probably still waiting for me to run him through with a knife - figuratively speaking - if his words from last night rang any truth. King, on the other hand, would attempt to make small talk with me when he had the time for it. If I hadn't heard his part in the conversation, I honestly would have thought he was just being nice. He was easy to talk to.
But even he was probably waiting for the other shoe to drop on my motives.
When I had tried asking where he and Ban had been, King would easily shift the conversation to something else. A talent I wouldn't have thought him capable of from his mannerisms around Diane. Evidently it was just her that he got all tongue tied with, not women in general like I had hoped. He would've been a useful tool to get information out of if that was the case.
Most times when the two returned, they would have nothing, but in the few instances they did return with something, it was never very large. It was mere chance, right place right time, that I was able to see the small box King hid under his oversized jacket as he passed it off to Diane.
That was another perplexing situation. Diane.
She was the same kind and caring girl I met yesterday. To her, it was as if this morning's conversation never happened. I kept on high alert around her anyways. There was no way I could let go of the fact that she tailed me. It wasn't even that I was upset with her. I understood why she did it. I was pissed at myself. How hadn't I noticed her following me?
The other odd thing I noticed was the number of people who would come into the bar asking for the bathroom. They'd walk right up to the counter, not even bothering to sit at a table first, and ask the same damn question:
"Where's the bathroom?"
Diane would always be the one to answer saying, "around the corner, but the men's room is broken."
Despite her saying that, everyone who asked still rounded the corner and disappeared. Diane wouldn't look their way again.
Not even when they returned a whole fifteen minutes later and leave. Not buying a damn thing. It was so strange. Didn't most businesses hate when people used their restrooms but not pay for anything?
"Lots of full bladders today," I mumbled, dropping off a tray of empty mugs. She simply shrugged in response, intent on taking the glasses from me so I could return to the floor.
It took me until the second day but I finally realized after the fifth person asking Diane the same question and her giving the same answer, who these people were;
They had to be the Sins' contacts.
The next day passed much the same. More random restroom inquiries, more trips in and out of the bar, more silence, and more questions being left unanswered.
By the time the fourth day rolls around, I'm fuming. The day itself wasn't any different. Not a thing out of the ordinary - as all the random occurrences of the last few days suddenly felt ordinary. King and Diane still make small talk with me while Meliodas and Ban make wise cracks. It isn't until we're about to shut down for the night that a... peculiar character walks in.
The bar door opens, and I look up from the table I'd spent too much time wiping down in my frustration. There's a not-so-kind comment about how we're closing soon on the tip of my tongue, when I take in the figure standing at the entrance.
My first thought is that he's young. He couldn't have been older than nineteen… twenty at the most. Either way, he was still too young to be walking into a bar at 2 am. He's a lanky kid - tall and thin, an obvious fact despite the thick, oversized hoodie he wore. His jeans were worn and dirty, smudged around the knees and dusty everywhere else. Was this kid homeless?
"Sorry, but, we're closed." I say, and I expected him to make some sort of excuse. Actually, I was expecting him to do anything other than what he did, which was walk past me like I hadn't said a damn thing.
I spin around to watch him walk right up to the bar and pull out a seat for himself.
I'm just about to say something else when Meliodas walks out from the kitchen. He glances up to find the kid at the bar. But I must be in topsy-turvy town, because the man just smiles! He smiles and without a word walks behind the bar counter and pours something into a cup for him.
Are you fucking kidding me? I'm completely dumbfounded. Not only does he insist on making a mockery of me, he blatantly breaks the fucking law in front of my face!
My blood starts boiling and I can't stop myself anymore. Fuck keeping up appearances. I'm done with this asshole making a joke out of me.
I storm up to the bar and give Meliodas the dirtiest glare I know I'm capable of. "What the hell do you think you're doing? He's a minor."
A grin starts to creep over Meliodas' face again and I swear I'm moments away from back slapping him, before a deadpanned voice freezes me in my tracks.
"Approximately five-foot-four-inches. One hundred forty pounds. Approximate measurements: 38 - 24 - 36. Normal symmetry; falls within ideal ratio standards."
My cheeks flush immediately as the boy sitting at the bar counter lists off my physical attributes without so much as a glance in my direction. As far as I know, he hadn't looked at me at all - even now, he kept his head turned away from me, his eyes locked with the table-top.
Then he speaks again, "Are you sure it's alright for her to be here? " He asks Meliodas, and I find my mouth falling open. Just who the fuck is this kid?
Meliodas' grin forms completely as he addresses the kid without acknowledging me, "I don't know Gowther, you tell me."
Gowther?
The kid named Gowther pauses a moment before finally turning to look at me. However he never once meets my eyes. His gaze darted wildly over my figure before turning his face away from me again, "Well kept, moderately-strong physical stature, above-average spatial reasoning, records indicate higher than normal IQ, but is known for having poor emotional control. Psychological profile states loyalty and sense of morality as strongest qualities. Threat level… moderate. Requires further research." Gowther's voice had remained stale, almost robotic the entire time he had spoken.
What…?
"Then I guess we'll keep her around until you decide otherwise." Meliodas jokes.
I can't make heads or tails of this kid. How the hell did he know so much about me? He was practically listing off my service record like it was sitting in front of him!
"Princess, meet Gowther. He's one of us." Meliodas replies to my unspoken question. "You'll have to excuse his lack of tact. He's has High Functioning Autism, so he doesn't process emotions the same way as the rest of us." The smile he keeps shifts as he's speaking - it's almost… proud as he watches Gowther finally reach for the mug he had put out for him and take a sip.
"And he's a sin?"
"Yeah. The Sin of Lust. With an IQ over 160, we'd be stupid not to have him on the team."
So he's a super genius then? Weren't geniuses kept in universities to solve world hunger and the meaning of life? This kid looked like he lived in a box somewhere.
"How does he know all of that stuff about me?"
"Oh, that? He's an extremely gifted hacker. Not many things he can't get into. The police department human resources database is no exception."
My teeth grind in my mouth, "Great." I say with as much sarcasm as possible. "All that aside, the fact that he's a genius doesn't mean he can drink underaged."
"Gowther only drinks one thing." Meliodas reaches under the bar and pulls out a carton, "Apple juice."
I feel my skin heat up as I realize the mistake I made - and for the first time in a long time I felt guilt. Meliodas wasn't breaking the law right in front of my face. He wasn't making a joke of me and my profession. At least not right now.
"Now the real work begins, Princess."
"Princess," Gowther states and I'm unable to tell if he means it as a question or not. "Incorrect. That is not her name according to records."
"That's what we've been calling her."
"Why?"
"We don't want anyone to take her name and use it against us." Meliodas explains patiently. "If they had someone who could do what you do, it'd give us away."
"I… see," Gowther nods his head slowly. "That makes perfect logical sense."
"Glad to hear it," the blonde smiles. "Do you want to say hi?"
"No."
Meliodas shrugs, "Okay."
I ignore their exchange and ask a question of my own. "What did you mean.. The real work begins?"
"Well I told you I was waiting on someone. That someone is Gowther."
Again with this kid. But Meliodas is making me work for this one, "Alright, I'll bite. WHY?"
"Is she here too?" Gowther asks, and I realize that they are completely ignoring me. As if I needed another reason to pull out my hair today.
"Who, Gluttony?"
Now that caught my attention. Gluttony… another sin. Another woman? And what the heck was with the nicknames? Did each of the Sins correlate to something? I'm fighting the urge to grind my own teeth into dust as the frustration nearly overwhelms me. Too many questions. Not enough answers. And every time I feel like I'm getting my bearing, something else comes up.
"That is not her name either." Gowther mumbles in his same monotone.
Meliodas chuckles, taking the unfinished mug from Gowther and dumping the rest into the nearby sink, and I briefly wonder why he would waste so much. "She's not in. She's working late on another project."
Gowther's eyes dance for a moment like he's processing this information before he carefully stands from his bar stool, "Then I'll go home." He says, pulling something from his hoodie pocket and placing it on the counter with a surgeon's precision - lining it up perfectly with the grain of the wood. It's a flash-drive. Worn and used much like his jeans were.
And then he leaves. Not a word more, not a glance at either me or Meliodas. He just walks right out the door. To say the encounter had been strange was… an understatement.
"You said he has High Functioning Autism?" I ask, and I remember having read about it before.
"That's right." Meliodas confirms, and I bite back a comment about how I'm no longer invisible to him. But, then it hits me.
"He's not good with other people, is he? Not just at processing emotions."
The blonde nods, looking impressed, all the while, he's slipped the flash-drive from the counter into his pocket, "You really know your stuff." For once his tone doesn't come off as condescending. "Gowther's been diagnosed with several other disorders attributed to his Autism. OCD and social anxiety are the most prominent. He's only recently really started speaking to me."
And for once, my mind isn't stuck on my case. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - that explains the apple juice and the need for aligning the flash-drive. How does a kid with Autism get mixed up with a gang like the Sins? But more pressing on my mind... "When he said he's going home…"
Meliodas sighs, no grin to be found, "As you've probably guessed, living in a home is… difficult for Gowther. If Gluttony isn't around, he doesn't stay. But, should we need him, I know where to find him." He finishes, and rounds the bar, walking back towards the staircase. He pauses when he realizes I haven't followed, "You coming or what?"
Luv: *Watches Dom curiously as she very carefully places books in a perfect line* ...Whatcha doing?
Dom: SSSSSHHHHHHH… *Puts up hand, staring intensely at the last book* I'm organizing my collection. I have to concentrate!
Luv: …. Uh… Okay? *stares blankly for a while.* Um… How long is this gunna take? We have some things to do ya know?
Dom: SSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH! *Intense music plays in background as the book binder is inched closer to the line*
Luv: *glances around the room* Where the hell is that coming from? *Stares at Dom.* When did you get background music? I want some! Live's always better with background music!
Dom: *Wipes a bead of sweat from her brow* You have some. Listen. *Pulls remote from back pocket, and the tune of "Do you believe in magic" blares to life*
Luv: Oh my gosh! I do believe in magic! *dances around to her theme music and sings along*
Dom: LUV! NO TIME FOR DANCING! WE MUST GIVE THE PREVIEW! *Continues working on perfecting the book collection*
Luv: *grumbles something under her breath as she pouts* …. Next time on Don't Trust Me: Elizabeth finally starts to get some of the answers she's been looking for; but there is a price. Sequins and hairdos are in the detective's future… what else will she have to do in order to solve her case?