Stand By Me by Fullmetal Pyromaniac

Chapter fourteen


"I grew up an orphan, living in the streets of Edinburgh. It wasn't nice, and I grew up faster than I should have but I can't change that now, huh? Anyway, when I was eleven there was this thing I could go to called school. From what the other street rats told me, it seemed like a bad place so just to seem like a badass, I decided to enroll myself one day.

"Kids are cruel, you know that Elizabeth? From the moment I walked through the school gates people whispered about the scruffy kid with weird hair. But there was one kid just as odd as me. Harlequin"

King shuffled around in his seat.

"We became good friends, and eventually I met his family, I didn't have any so they kind of adopted me. I went round for tea almost everyday. When I won awards, they were the ones in the audience for me. I had a family, King was basically my brother. We fought; but it always turned out okay.

"King had a sister too, Elaine, she was called. She was a year or two younger than us, tiny and with blonde hair. I grew up with her, eventually I think I fell in love. I was pretty young but thats what I think it was. Elaine had always been sickly. As she got older it just got worse and worse.

"I was over one day, seeing her, and she told me she was tired. She was tired of the medication that barely kept her alive, of the hospital visits that always promised to be her last. So I offered her my shoulder to sleep on. And she did. I felt her soft breaths on me, her light weight resting against me, and I knew I loved her. I fell asleep too, against the side of her bed, it wasn't comfortable. It took me a little while to wake up, but when I did I noticed Elaine she felt heavier, and her breaths weren't...I couldn't feel them anymore. She died. Right next to me"

Elizabeth gasped, covering her mouth with one hand and clutching the armrest of her wheelchair with the other. She felt sick. Not being able to comprehend what pain the two must have gone through.

"Our relationship became...rocky, after Elaine's death" King said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously with his prosthetic, "I guess I blamed Ban, and myself, I was out with friends when Elaine died. I didn't get to say goodbye, and Ban was with her in her last moments, and spent it sleeping. I was a mess. We stopped speaking, Ban stopped coming round. Everything was messed up.

"On her one year anniversary...I did something really awful; I got drunk. A friend was with me at the time, I wanted to find Ban and tell him it was all his fault, so I took my parents car and made my friend get in. They protested but I had already decided I was going, and I guess they wanted to stop me from doing something stupid.

"I lost control of the car, and it crashed. I don't remember much happening, just fire, lots...lots of blood, and looking down and thinking 'hey, where'd my arm go?' I was numb" he flexed the fingers of his prosthetic and clutched his toy tighter. "I woke up in this hospital, Merlin was looking after me. I didn't really speak with anyone for a while, my parents popped in now and then but I usually just text them.

"Merlin told me my friend had amnesia, and had forgotten all about me, which I thought was for the better."

"Diane..." Elizabeth whispered, King nodded shamefully.

"She loved sports, she loved running. I took that away from her... Then Merlin and Escanor made the Seven Deadly Sins, gathering the most messed-up kids to try and make friends and, my ex-best friend and the one I had nearly killed were both in this club. It was awful, it was awkward, Ban and I fought a lot, then we talked"

"I had admitted myself to the psychology ward for depression and self harming. Addiction too. But lets just gloss over those details, they ain't pretty, and I don't really wanna live through them again, y'know?" Elizabeth nods in understanding, "Anyway, we talked, worked shit out, et voila. I let go of the past, sure it fucking hurts, and sometimes it's a struggle to get up. Sometimes I just feel like taking a knife to my wrists, but I work past it.

"I paint, I cook whenever I can, I read, I hang out with you guys. I'm getting better" Ban looks almost wistful now.

"I've spoken with Diane about it briefly, that I was part of her accident. But I haven't told her everything. After I do, I guess I can begin the road to happiness, or at least contentment" King adds, he then looks at Elizabeth with a piercing gaze. "So, you know about Liz now. What're you going to do?"

Elizabeth sighs, feeling emotionally worn out. Though probably not as much as King and Ban.

"I don't know" she says, "I want to ask, I want to be someone he trusts to tell me about these things, but..."

"But what?" Ban asked.

"I'm scared of what he'll tell me" She admitted, gazing at the floor, her eyes welling up with tears.

"That he still loves Liz? That his condition is worse than he lets on? That he co-wrote fifty shades of grey?" Ban teased, then turned serious, "There's nothing to be scared of. Unless he co-wrote fifty shades of grey, in which case be careful if you're gonna do any kinky shit with him"

Elizabeth offered a weak smile, while King whacked him with his metal arm, making Ban yelp.

"Real talk though, you won't get anything done between you two unless you talk to him, what's the worse that could happen? If he still likes Liz, then wait for him. If his condition's getting worse, then stay by his side until you know for definite whats happening to him"

"As a very famous and very wise man once said: If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss the chance to to something great-"

"That was Shiro from Voltron quoting the captain from the Kerberos mission" Ban deadpanned, King waved him off.

"Shiro is very famous, and very wise. You can't prove or say otherwise, anyway, my point being, if you're too scared to talk to him about it, you might miss the chance to do something for Meliodas, you might help him. Your input might be the final push he needs to finally let go. If you're too scared to do that he might be stuck in that mindset forever"

Elizabeth clenched her fists, glaring angrily at her lap. She'd always been a little bit of a doormat, not going for what she wanted, and she wanted Meliodas to clear things up about Liz. Once and for all. Elizabeth didn't want him to be sad anymore.

"I'll do it" She decided fearlessly, "I'm going to go speak to him, I want to know about Liz"

"That's the spirit" Ban chuckled, patting her shoulder enthusiastically, "Now go get him!"

Elizabeth grinned, wheeling herself to the doorway and shouting "wish me luck!" as she sped down the corridor.

King laughed, lounging back in his seat as the faint squeaking of wheels eventually vanished. Ban did the same, looking at the picture of Elaine that was painted onto the wall.

"Bet you £10 that they'll be dating by next month" King said, a smirk growing on his face. Ban leant forward, mimicking Kings wolfish grin. He towered over the ginger boy, even sitting down.

"Nahh, at least two weeks"

The two shook hands, "Done"

...

Elizabeth flung open the door to Meliodas' room, he jumped a little from where he was lying on his bed. At least he looked a little bit better, clearly he was taking his medication now. Although there were still remnants of the dark circles under his eyes, and his hair wasn't as bright a gold colour as it should have been. But there were improvements, which fuelled Elizabeth.

"Hey Elizabeth, I called by your room a while ago but you weren't in. Were you at the club? How is everyon-"

"Meliodas" Elizabeth interuptted, Meliodas' eyes widened, "I'm going to ask you to do something for me, and I want you to do it as well as you can"

Meliodas smiled softly, "A pretty girl like you asking me to do something for her, sure, is it something we'll both enjoy?" he wiggled his eyebrows.

"I want you to tell me about Liz"


End of chapter fourteen.

A.N. Damn, I'm getting these chapters out quicker than...I used to be?...nailed it!

I don't have much to say, I've been feeling better recently, which means I want to write more! I literally have 4 documents where it's just story prompts for other fandoms, I hope to write them all at somepoint, though I'll probably write all the chapters before posting.

Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it's mainly backstory, more backstory next chapter except it's for Meliodas, muhahaha! Gosh I'm so HYPED.

I also got the latest chapter of 'A-Z of Melizabeth' written, it's published and more than 2,000 words! So I would be very pleased if you left a review on that story telling me what you thought.

Read! Review! Favourite! and Follow!

Every review is read and appreciated, seriously, you guys are so supportive!

See you soon!

- Ruby xxx