Stand By Me by Fullmetal Pyromaniac

Chapter nineteen


It was a calm day, and Meliodas was feeling pretty good, (He'd grown another inch), if not a bit lonely without Elizabeth. He sighed as he thought about her, she was seeing family, and therefore couldn't make it to the club meeting.

He'd decided to go for a wander, conveniently to Elizabeth's room- a coincidence he'd assure her- then he'd head back to the club room.

Meliodas put his hands in his pockets, thinking about Elizabeth stressed him out a little. After her fall he vowed to never let her out of his sight again, though that wasn't always possible, her sister would take care of her today.

A fuzzy feeling hit his heart whenever the silver haired beauty filled his mind, he suppressed the feeling, but it overflowed, filling Meliodas with a warm heat.

There was a shout, a thud, and footsteps.

His curiosity piqued, Meliodas walked down the corridor, briefly catching the end of a yell before the footsteps grew louder. There was another crash and a weak groan, then some laughter. Elizabeth was splayed out a few metres in front of him, her eyes scrunched in pain and a maniacal cackle resounding throughout the air. She pulled herself on her elbows, Meliodas could only stare.

How pale she was, were those tears? What was happening? Was that...singing?

"Dead girl walk-ing, dead girl walk-ing" it sounded like...Vivian, she sang morbidly. Meliodas froze.

"...Elizabeth?" he croaked out. Her neck practically snapped to look at him. Meliodas nearly started crying when he saw her, her eyes were wide with pain, fear, and panic. He wanted to call out to her, he really did, but the shock of her glued his feet to the floor. Then, nearly as fast as she had stared into his soul, she was up on her feet and clumsily sprinting away.

"Elizabeth!" Merlin shouted after her in fear, coming into view of Meliodas.

"Merlin, what's going on?" He asked, begged, standing rigid. Merlin gave him a hard stare, a defence mechanism of hers.

"Go back to the room" She ordered, Meliodas opened his mouth to object but with a flash of her golden eyes he stopped, "Now"

And so he ran back to the room, sinking to the floor, refusing to talk even when the sins begged him to.

He wouldn't utter a noise.

...

Merlin came to the room an hour later, with a clearly pissed off and weary-looking Arthur behind her.

"Elizabeth didn't come here did she?" He asked, Diane -who had been sulking in a corner- rolled herself over with teary eyes.

"No! Is she missing? Is that why the captain won't speak? What's going on?" She cried, Merlin sighed tiredly and placed a hand on Diane's shoulder.

"Elizabeth...something unfortunate was said to her. Something that we were planning to tell her professionally and in a calm manner was yelled at her today by someone" Arthur snapped to no one particular, "She took the news badly, as anyone would, and ran off. This was roughly an hour ago"

"What was the news" Ban asked, narrowing his blood red eyes. King went over to Diane and held her hand (missing the way her cheeks flushed slightly, and Diane missing the way his did the same) Arthur thought for a second.

"I-'d rather not say yet, Elizabeth doesn't even know the whole truth yet. If you find her, she might tell you. Will you help us look for her?"

"Yes" Diane said instantly, dragging King to the door. "We'll check the garden"

"Call us if you find her" King demanded before he and Diane disappeared. Ban stood up, taking Gowther's arm, he dragged him out the room.

"C'mon freak, lets go" He looked sternly at Meliodas who was sitting against a wall with his blond fringe covering his face, "Listen captain, I know you're upset but Ellie's our friend too. I don't know what you heard but we'll never find out if something happens to her, she's all alone remember. So pull your head out of your ass and get looking"

Meliodas was quiet as Gowther was dragged down the corridor, a faint "ta ta!" sounded from him.

"Elizabeth's dying" Meliodas stated monotonously. Merlin avoided his gaze nervously.

"We have a lot to discuss with her, and I'd rather tell Elizabeth before anyone else, do you understand?"

He nodded, "What about Vivian?"

"She's left the hospital, apparently she'd been stalking Gilthunder and Margaret for a while now. Gilthunder's pressing charges"

"Good" Meliodas replied with a clenched fist.

Merlin eyed him up suspiciously, "Remember, Elizabeth is against violence. Don't do anything rash"

Meliodas stood up wordlessly and pushed past Merlin and Arthur, to the one place he knew was Elizabeth's safe haven.

...

The rooftop was tranquil, the flowers waved gently in the wind, yet Elizabeth wasn't there. Meliodas looked around, no silver hair, no white nightgown, nothing. Just when he was about to give up, there was a soft, almost unnoticeable sniffle that came from somewhere to his left. He peeked around the wall, then walked down. There was a small square place in the wall, just big enough for two people to sit. Elizabeth sat there, hidden from view, her head hidden in her knees.

Meliodas couldn't speak, the nerves swirling around in his stomach prevented him from speaking. He took a shaky breath and swallowed his fears.

"I don't think a princess like you should be sitting on the dirty floor of a roof" Meliodas tried to joke, but it just came out somber. Elizabeth stared up at him in shock, her tear stained cheeks glistened. Elizabeth swiped at her cheeks and tried to laugh, though it came out as a sob that kept repeating and repeating. Meliodas knelt down and embraced Elizabeth in his arms as she sobbed into him.

A few minutes later Elizabeth had calmed down, Meliodas sat beside her so her head was resting on his shoulder. The two were silent for a little bit longer.

"So" Meliodas said, "You want to tell me what's up?"

"I...Did you hear Vivian...her- her singing?" Not seeing the point in lying to her, he nodded solemnly.

"Yeah. I did"

Elizabeth was quiet once again, "I'm sorry" she whispered, "I didn't know either"

"Apparently I'm dying" she cried out, "I'm dying. I- I- I don't know what to do. I don't know how long I have, I don't know if I'll make it to be a waitress at the Boar Hat! You've already been through so much pain, I'm only going to cause you more pain...if you don't want to be friends, I understand"

All sorts of emotion flooded through Meliodas. He was in pain, mental agony, but for Elizabeth instead. Someone who expected everyone to leave her so they wouldn't be in pain. Trying to spare his feelings, she was both admirable and stupid.

That's why he lo-

"Elizabeth" Meliodas said quietly, his voice softer than usual, "I need to tell you something. You need to listen carefully, okay?"

She nodded.

"I've never had much, despite having a 'rich' family. Being brought up in a hospital, I can't have much right now, but I have you, Diane, Ban, King, Gowther, Merlin, and Arthur, and that's all I need" He took Elizabeth's hand, clenching it in his own.

"You, Elizabeth, have so much. Yet you're so humble, you put others feelings in front of your own, no matter if it makes you sad. You deserve so much better than this, you deserve to live for a long time, get a good job, do so much with your life, and it kills me that you might not be able to.

"Your forever might not be that long, it might be years -hopefully-, months, days, hours even. But, even if it's painful, I want to spend the rest of it by your side, no matter what happens. Will you let me stay with you forever, however long it may be?"

Elizabeth stared into his jade green eyes, shining with nervousness and sincerity. Letting out a bubbled laugh, she smiled softly and gripped his hands.

"Yes, I accept"


End of chapter nineteen.

A.N. Bonjour! ça-va? Good, good, so I tried my best to get everyone's emotions in check. I'm not a confrontational person, so writing this was difficult and kinda unnerving me to write. Anyway, I hope it turned out okay, I tried to make Vivian evil but not stupid-evil, you know? I'm glad I made her a character!

So, tell me, did I do good? Was it bad? What were you up to this weekend?

I'm also writing the plans for three stories, a Tokyo Ghoul one, a Voltron one, and another seven Deadly Sins one. I'm gonna make a poll until I finish Stand By Me, so vote about what one I should start writing first soon!

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See you soon! Bye!

-Ruby xxxx