Ichigo played at least four more hands of cards with Slader and Ban, all of which she won even with Ban cheating, before Merlin seemed to grow impatient and she finally dragged the other girl off to...talk? About heirs?
Oh boy. Meliodas thought to himself as he looked around his semi empty pub and wondered if it was too early to start baby proofing the joint. After all, any child of the girl Merlin was entangled with was going to be everyone's responsibility. And he meant everyone.
Not just Merlin and the girl king.
But everyone else's too.
"Well people say that it takes a village..." Ban said as he came walking up to the bar. Meliodas blinked and tipped his head back to look at the man. It was weird, but Ban looked almost...happy?
Wait a second!
"Are we even thinking about the same thing here?" He felt the need to ask because either Ban was actually looking forward to babysitting the girl king's offspring or he'd stolen the girl's coin purse.
"You were thinking about the girl king's heir, right?" Ban asked lazily as he propped his chin in his hand. His scarlet eyes staring at the smaller man, unblinkingly.
It was at times like this that Meliodas really had to resist the urge to poke his fellow sin in the eyes and force him to blink. Still...the man did know him well enough to literally know what he was thinking. So maybe he'd let the non blinking thing slide for now.
"I was."
"Wondering if it's too early to baby proof the pub?" Ban asked. Meliodas wasn't exactly sure why the man bothered to ask him anything anymore if he already knew what he was thinking. Honestly, it was annoying having his friend so in tuned to his thoughts. I mean, what if he'd been standing here perving on Elizabeth? Did that mean that Ban would be perving on her too?
"Ew." Ban muttered causing Meliodas to glare at him as he said. "Stop thinking of the princess's ass and think of something else already."
"I'm trying." Meliodas growled at him from between clenched teeth. If not for the fact that he was acutely aware that Ban didn't think Elizabeth was the prettiest little thing he'd ever laid eyes on, he would have lunged for his throat and probably torn it out already.
Ban was quiet for several heartbeats. Just long enough for Meliodas to get a fucking grip on himself and reign his temper in before he finally said, "If the girl has a kid, it'll fall on all of us to help protect her and it."
The blond man made a funny little strained sound before then saying, "Well, we would have helped to protect her anyways because of her involvement with Merlin. Still...you don't have to sound so friggin happy."
"Are you kidding me?" Ban said with a fox-like grin. "I love kids! Hell there isn't a person amongst us who doesn't. I'm more than a little bit surprised that you aren't already volunteering for the first round of babysitting duty. You and me are probably the most child friendly people out of the Sin's!"
Meliodas made another strained little sound as he thought, And the most viciously protective of the Sin's. The girl king's offspring would be damned lucky to have them wrapped around his/her little chubby fingers.
"So...heirs?" Ichigo said awkwardly as she and Rukia walked side by side away from the Boar Hat.
"Heirs. You know that you need one or two." Ichigo hummed in acknowledgement but said nothing about it one way or the other as Rukia went on to say, "And it's been fifty years since...Misaki's birth/death. I know that nothing and no one will ever replace the little one. But don't you think it's about time to try again?"
"It probably couldn't hurt anything to try again." Ichigo agreed.
"I could carry the baby this time if you're worried that-" Rukia started to say but Ichigo cut her off with a dark look. Despite her attempt to offer to carry a baby, they both knew that her body simply wasn't built for it. Going through a pregnancy, even in a short term capacity could very well kill her. No one knew that more than Ichigo did. Which was why she was looking at her in such a dark, furious way.
"I'm sorry. I guess that it was dumb of me to offer that." She said gently as she reached out and laced her fingers together with Ichigo's. The dark look faded a little bit and Ichigo sighed.
"No. It wasn't dumb of you to offer," She said as she gave Rukia's hand a small squeeze. "I get it. I do. But at the same time, you can't do it. We both know that it could very well kill not just you but the baby too. And frankly, having either of those things happen to you just isn't worth it."
"I know... I-It's just- I know that you've put it off all this time because you were worried that, you know. It would happen again."
"There's always a chance that it will. Even I know that. But...if you don't mind me sticking around for a while, then maybe it will help."
"Being close to one another has always calmed you and helped you to relax." Rukia agreed. Ichigo gave her a small smile and leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"Yup."
"So when do you want to do this?"
Ichigo was quiet for a moment or so. "We can start anytime, I guess. But shouldn't you talk to your friends about it?"
"I will. Just not right this second."
"They want to know how we met." Ichigo warned her.
"They're a bunch of nosy old farts." Rukia said in a sullen tone as she leaned her head against Ichigo's shoulder. Her friend chuckled in amusement. She may not know the Sin's personally, but if Rukia was calling them 'old farts' then all she could do was agree as she slipped her arm around the smaller woman's shoulders and pulled her close.
The two of them walked like that for a while. Neither one speaking. They were both simply content to be close to one another again after ten long years apart.
They walked around Liones, simply observing the people, taking note of some of the stands and shops in the city before finally heading back to Rukia's place several hours later at which point Ichigo decided that she wanted to take a nap and rest a little bit and the two parted ways for a while.
Ichigo to get her rest. And Rukia...to go and speak with the other Sin's.
