Chapter 12
Being alone with Meliodas in the bar was… weird. Neither of us said much of anything as we drank to help pass the time. It was strange seeing the Boar Hat so empty on a Saturday night compared to how full it was until the early morning during the week.
We'd gotten back and I wordlessly made a bee-line to my room to shower and change. I wanted to wash away any hint of the party and what had transpired there. It was also a good excuse to get away from the blonde for a bit. He'd shown me a side of himself that was closer to what I imagined a crime boss would look like. Cruel. Demanding. Downright scary.
But that peace could only last so long. So I had rejoined him in the bar.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting; Ban, King and Diane returned.
A surprising amount of relief washed over me at seeing their faces once again. No one appeared hurt on the surface - though they did seem to be covered in… ash? King and Diane offered me tired smiles, and I found myself returning them. Meliodas eyed me, I can see him raising a curious brow and I hoped that he hadn't noticed how much tension left my body at the realization the three of them were okay - or at not being alone anymore. I recovered quickly, smile gone from my face as quick as it had come.
"... Please tell me you guys didn't set a building on fire…" I joked with a deep frown at the trio - remembering the Sins' record of alleged arson.
"Uh, technically… no…" King responded, but refused to meet my gaze. Never a good sign.
My frown quickly turned to concerned shock as my joke turned to reality.
Diane chuckled awkwardly and Ban snorted. His crimson eyes had no trouble meeting my aqua. "Not that it's any of your business. But no. We didn't," Ban towered over me as he crossed his arms. "Dumbasses tried to put out an oil fire with water."
"What?" I furrowed my brows, confused that he actually knew what that meant. "Why was there a fire in the first place?"
"Um, that actually, was… kinda… my fault…" King interrupted the stare down between Ban and I.
"Really?" Meliodas drawled with obvious interest as he smiled. "How'd that happen?"
The Sin of Sloth scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well… I was trying to create a distraction by lighting a small, really, small barrel of oil on fire. It wasn't near anything else!" He quickly added as he saw my mouth open to chew his ass out. "I left the metal lid right next to it. I assumed the bozo's nearby would know not to throw water on top of it and use the lid I left behind….. They didn't…."
"Yeah, they came in with a bucket of water, dumped it in and WHOOSH!" Diane threw her hands up in the air. "Wasn't really what we wanted but, it worked," she shrugged. I stare at her blankly and she smiled before sending me a wink.
"Work it did!" Ban chuckled as he rested his arm on King's head. The shorter man stared at the ground in embarrassment. "The building starting on fire was their fault, not yours."
My mouth dropped open. "You actually set a building on fire? I was JOKING! I can't believe you guys did that!"
"Whoa, cool your jets, Princess," Ban's smile fell slightly. "I toldja we didn't. If the morons woulda used the lid nearby, there wouldn'ta been one. Plus," he gave me a crooked grin. "We are criminals."
I'm fuming. Ready to smack that smile off his face. As if he could sense my irritation, the tall oaf just smiled even wider.
"Was anyone hurt?" Meliodas' flat tone cut through my angry haze.
"Of course not!" King snapped his head up at that, finally looking him in the eye. "The fire was my stupid idea," his hand gripped his shirt tightly over his chest, "but there were only five guys there at the time. As soon as it started to spread, they left."
"We made sure of it," Diane nodded her head, a hand gripping King's shoulder, Ban's elbow still on his head.
With Meliodas standing in front of them like that, they really look like a team. I pushed the thought aside. This was no time to get caught up in how the Sins were almost like a task force. Not the criminals the law thought them to be. No matter what way I diced it, there was still a blinding difference between us.
I was on the side of the law.
They were carrying it out on their own.
"Good!" Meliodas easily slipped back into that cheery attitude. "I'm assuming you got everything then?"
"Course we did." Ban grinned as he removed his arm from King. He tapped at his shoulders, then his back and frowned. "Wait, where did I put that?" He grumbled as he continued patting himself down.
"I took them," King sighed as he pulled a bag off his back and placed it on a nearby table. "I could hardly let you keep track of something so important."
I'm surprised to see Ban's grin return and instead of an insult he said, "Always looking out for me, aintcha?"
"Elaine would be upset if I didn't."
Diane giggled. She leaned in and gave King an affectionate kiss to the cheek. "You're a good big brother."
"I've got a lot to make up for… being Ban's babysitter is the least I can do," he responded with a sad smile. Diane shook her head, not responding with words but instead a chaste kiss to his lips.
"How many times have I told you, you gotta learn to let that go," Meliodas frowned slightly at him. King answered with a mere shrug of his shoulders.
"You… have a sister?" I couldn't help but ask. Suddenly the conversation I overheard my first night here jumped to my mind. The name, Elaine, it was familiar.
"Uh, yeah," King answered unsurely. He appeared to mull it over before sighing heavily, as if this wasn't actually a topic he wanted to discuss. "I have a little sister. Her name is Elaine."
"A little sister?" I could hardly believe it. I thought all the Sins were loners who were thrown together by some odd sense of justice. To hear King had family was something I hadn't really considered before. I hadn't entertained the idea that any of them had.
"She ain't that much younger than you," Ban rolled his eyes.
King scowled up at him, the gaze holding no real anger. "Two years, five years, either way you'd still be a pain in my ass."
"You couldn't ask for a better in-law than me!"
"Yes. I could. And I have," the ginger haired man deadpanned.
Meliodas chuckled, "he's not so bad. You coulda got a lot worse than him, King. Elaine is quite the looker."
"Boss!" King shouted as Ban laughed heartily.
"Though I do prefer my girls a bit curvier," the blonde sent a side glance at me.
I feel my skin heat. My mind betrayed me, thinking of the passionate kiss we shared at the party. I stuff those thoughts down, instead focusing on the now, and reminding myself that just an hour ago I was scared of the guy. If I dwell on that too long and my own embarrassment of it, I may combust.
"I keep telling ya," Ban shook his head with a mirthful grin. "Flat chests are the way to go!"
"Damnit Ban!" King took a swing at the much taller man, Meliodas and Diane sharing a look before they laugh.
"Wait," I combined the rest of the conversation from that night, thankful for the mental click putting it all together. King said Ban couldn't compare his relationship with Elaine to his with Diane. "You're dating his little sister?"
"Sure am!" Ban sent me a blinding smile. I blinked at the sight of it. Not once had I seen such a genuine expression of happiness on the Sin of Greed's face. "Been with her for about two years now."
"It's about the only time I've seen him nice is when Elaine is around," Diane added with a giggle.
"Does she come here often?" I questioned. Even to my own ears it sounded like I was fishing.
King and Ban's pleasant expressions turned hard as they narrowed their eyes in sync at me. "No. She isn't involved in this so don't try to add her name to that list you're keeping," King told me flatly.
His tone wasn't unkind, but it definitely wasn't one he'd directed at me before. It threw me off. "I-I wasn't-"
"You were," Ban cut in. "Elaine isn't involved and she won't ever be. So leave her out of whatever little investigation you're doing in that pretty little head of yours." He tapped my forehead none too gently.
I scowled up at him, cursing his height. "I didn't mean to sound like that. I was just curious…" I gave King an apologetic smile, knowing he was only looking out for his sister. Reluctantly, I did the same for Ban. Both were still on edge, but they seemed to relax. At least a little.
Whoa, they must really care for her. Which somehow just made me want to know even more about the mysterious Elaine. They could easily be lying to me about her. At the same time I couldn't help but think they wouldn't want her to be involved. The Sins lived a dangerous life after all, even if Ban and Meliodas were the only publicly known members.
"Curiosity killed the cat. Isn't that how the saying goes?" Diane hummed as she delivered a tray of drinks to the nearest table. "Why don't we all just have a drink and go over what we found, okay?"
"Whaddya guys find in that dirt bags office?" Ban asked as he collapsed into a chair. He nodded his head in thanks to Diane and then grabbed a mug.
"Not as much as I was hoping," Meliodas admitted with a small frown, plopping down to Ban's left. King sat on the blonde's other side and I took the open seat next to him. Diane ducked back into the kitchen.
"We were almost caught," I added. A reluctant shiver passed through me at the embarrassing memory. "Twice."
A smirk formed on Meliodas' lips. "And Princess here saved my ass both times."
"Really?" King quirked a brow curiously.
"Find that hard to believe," Ban mumbled into his mug.
"I don't," Diane arrived back at the table with some food. "The way she carries herself spells total badass." She winked at me.
"I didn't do anything that great…" I ignored the heat building on my cheeks. If I didn't think about it, didn't acknowledge it, I could pretend it never happened.
"Well I don't know about that. The fact that you snuck a gun into the party is pretty great." Meliodas' expression was smug and seemingly impressed. A weird combination that made me want to throw something at him.
Diane's eyes widened and I can only assume that she knew how difficult it was to hide anything in that ensemble, "Oh.." I blushed under her knowing gaze. "Oh wow. I didn't know you had that kind of… skill, Elizabeth." She bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Very impressive." She winked at me again.
"What are you guys talking about?" King glanced between the three of us.
"Just some of the unknown capabilities of Princess' that I was lucky enough to be a part of." Meliodas' smirked deviously at me. I wanted to slap him and yet… I couldn't help thinking of that stupid kiss again.
I took a long drink from my mug. I slammed it back down on the counter. "Can we just move on please?" I scowled at him.
"Sure, sure," Meliodas replied easily. "So we found a few more locations, didn't get too much time to look over it. Got it all right here though," the blonde held up the flash drive.
"Nice~," Ban droned with a nod of his head. "When we gunna take a peek?
"King can look it over tomorrow," Meliodas shrugged. "What about you guys?"
"Lots of files," King answered as he opened his backpack, fingering through the papers. "Don't think we should look at them up here though."
Meliodas nodded. "So despite the small… hiccup," he sent a look at King that had the Sin of Sloth sinking in his chair, mumbling another apology. "Everything went smoothly?"
"Yep!" Diane smiled. "Nothing to it, really. One of our smoother operations."
"How often do you guys do these kinds of… operations," I asked cautiously.
With how often King and Ban would leave the bar throughout the day, it's hard to pinpoint what they may have been doing. But Meliodas mentioned that he and Ban had scoped out the mayor's place more than once. Did they do this the previous night with King? Logic told me that they would have recently checked the place out and I couldn't help but wonder if they'd done so with me being none the wiser.
"Whenever they're needed," Meliodas answered vaguely. I rolled my eyes at him and he merely smirked. "Alright let's move elsewhere, shall we?" He must have been talking about the "inner sanctum".
We all made to stand, but before I could even take a step, the building shook violently beneath me. I tripped and expected to meet the hard floor. Instead I found Meliodas' body under mine. His green eyes were a mixture of amusement and worry. How could they be so contradicting? And why did I feel so conflicted about him? I placed my hands on his chest, trying to push off him, but he held me firmly in place with an arm around my waist.
His other held his ale. Not a drop spilled.
"What the hell was that?" Ban grumbled as he stood.
"An earthquake?" Daine questioned and began cleaning up the spilled ale on the table with a rag.
"I don't think so…" King pondered outloud. "It kinda felt more like…"
"Huh," Meliodas commented from underneath me. His expression had relaxed much more. "Didn't think she'd be showing up tonight."
I glared down at him. His hand moved to press against the small of my back and I involuntarily shivered. "Let me up," I demanded with pursed lips.
He grinned at me, "no thank you?"
A biting retort was on the tip of my tongue. Ban answered instead. "Uh… you guys smell smoke?"
My eyes widened and I sniffed the air, Meliodas copying the action. "Well, that's not good," the blonde replied casually as he sat up, my legs falling to the side to straddle him. My face heated at the intimate position.
"We're gunna go check that out," Diane spoke from the hall, a sly smirk on her features as well as Ban's. King must already be down the hall.
"You two come when you're ready~" the white haired buffon wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at us.
"May be a while!" Meliodas responded with a cheeky grin. That stupid smile caused my stomach to flutter.
"Ugh!" I groaned as I pushed him away and scampered out of his lap. "You can stay here. I'm going to check that out."
"Damn," he sighed as he stood up next to me, following my hurried steps. "Was hoping for a repeat from earlier." My arm swung out in an attempt to backhand him. The infuriating blonde merely ducked under my blow and walked past me, but not before sending a smug grin over his shoulder.
"Holy shit," I heard Ban curse. "What the fuck were you doing down there?"
I rounded the corner as two figures emerged from the black smoke pouring out of yet another door I had not really noticed. Ban, King, and Diane stand just outside the doorway, shirts pulled up to cover their mouths.
"I informed her that it was an ill advised combination and the likelihood of an explosion was 67 percent." A somewhat monotone cadence answered. The voice was not unfamiliar to me. It was Gowther - the young man I had met the night before.
"And I told you that I was looking for something with a violent reaction." This was a woman's voice now. She came out of the smoke, waving to clear the air and coughing.
"That was too violent of a reaction. Your calculations were wrong." Gowther removed his glasses and rubbed the blackened lens with the - mostly - unsoiled undershirt he wore under his hoodie.
The woman laughed at his humorless words, finding the utter chaos fuming behind her funny. "My calculations were perfect. I chose to increase the ratio to see what would happen."
Wait… I… know that voice. And that morbid sense of humor…
I studied the woman carefully. She was covered in dark smudges and her black hair was frizzed at the edges when it normally hung perfectly at her neck. Despite all of that, I recognized her.
"Merlin?" I asked, even though I knew it was her. Something in me hoped I was wrong, I guess. I had to be wrong. There was no way that this woman was here.
The tall languid woman stopped chortling before turning to me with mischief lighting up her already bright golden eyes, "Oh my, well hello there detective. Nice to see you outside of the crime lab!"
Luv:... do you think we should get bunk beds? I mean… we'd have so much more room for activities!
Dom: *Looks around room stuffed with everything imaginable, while huddled up on a small cot next to Luv* Oh my gosh… you're so right! We NEED BUNK BEDS!
Luv: Yay! *jumps off the cot in excitement and lands on a lego replica of the Boar Hat* Ow! *stares at the jumbled mess of legos* Oh… Oh no…. *stares cautiously at Dom* Ops?
Dom: *Dramatically falls to her knees from the cot and screams* NOOOOOOOOoooooooo *to the ceiling. If this were an action film, there would be rain - but its not. So the neighbors upstairs stomped, demanding she stop screaming*
Luv: Shhhhh! *throws a hand over Dom's mouth* They already hate us - what with the dramatic music, all my singing, the bending of the elements -
Dom: *Moves luvs hand long enough to say* Don't forget the bear wrestling.
Luv: *nods her head, while keeping a careful eye on Dom. Making sure she's done with her outburst.* Uh huh and there's that PLUS we've had more than a few complaints about our drunken nights. Really. We don't have a problem with wine. Wine has a problem with us!
Dom: *rolls her eyes* gosh… don't these people know this is all part of the creative process?! I NEED TO LET MY IMAGINATION RUN NAKED AND FREE IN WHATEVER DIRECTION IT DAMN NEAR PLEASES! *Screams at the ceiling*
Luv: *grabs a pillow and chucks it at Dom* Shhhhh! Please no naked talk! I don't think I can handle another one of those episodes. I'd rather not relive the whole "fire nation attacking" fiasco... *clears throat* Anyways.. Next Time on Don't Trust Me: Elizabeth is feeling the weight of being undercover as she learns just how deep the sins' power runs. Before the night is done, she'll have to decide what's more important - Her HONOR or solving the case? The appearance of the last sin may just make that decision that much harder.
Dom: *Continues screaming obscenities at the ceiling - much of which make no sense anymore, so we've decided to let you use your imagination*
Luv: *doorbell rings along with loud knocks at the door* Uh oh *begins to frantically pile blankets on top of Dom* Pretend we aren't home! Maybe they'll go away this time!
Dom: *Screams muffled by blankets* I WILL NOT BE SILENCED! *Her screams though, are more like whispers, so she has, in fact, been silenced.*
Luv: Ufda… *lets out a heavy sigh of relief as Dom's voice continues to come out muffled. The knocking stops* Well that's at least one crisis averted this week. Cya guys next time!