Hello everyone! Guess who finally finished SDS after a five year hiatus?

I want to get back into writing for it so consider this a test run or a warm-up. This is set just after they beat the Demon King I guess.

Enjoy!


Finally

Hendrickson looked from Gilthunder to Howzer to Griamore and back again before sighing mentally.

I should have told them individually, he thought to himself. They were good kids but they could be nasty as a group. Ask any of their childhood instructors. Welp, too late now.

He spoke to Griamore personally but his words were for all three of them. "It's not a huge deal, I just wanted to tell you in person." Oh how he hoped that first part would continue to be true. "Your father and I have started dating."

Silence.

Pure silence. Total silence. Dead silence even…

Once upon a time, Hendrickson wouldn't have worried about their reaction to news like this. But that was before he'd been possessed by a demon, gotten Dreyfus possessed by a demon, killed Gilthunder's father, drank demon blood and turned into a demon, released the Ten Commandments and re-started the Holy War.

Yes, before that they might have welcomed him as a member of their family. Oh who was he kidding? These three young men had already loved him like he was one of their own and he'd repaid that trust by getting Gil's princess held hostage, Griamore's father possessed by a demon and nearly getting Howzer killed when he'd refused to follow the same evil path.

Hendrickson met Griamore's eyes as he thought all this.

Yeah, when they were little kids, Griamore and the others might have been okay with Hendrickson dating Dreyfus but now he wouldn't be surprised if Griamore challenged him to a duel.

Heaven only knew he'd deserve the beating.

"Finally." Griamore almost groaned.

Excuse him, what?

Howzer cracked up laughing, "it only took what? Twenty years?"

"But we got there in the end," Gilthunder sighed, although he was beginning to smile too.

What?

"Come on, you can't honestly think we couldn't see that not-so-little crush on Sir Dreyfus you had." Howzer laughed, "we could even tell you liked him back when we were kids."

Oh this was much worse than a beating.

"You… could…?" Instinctively, Hendrickson looked at Gilthunder. Howzer would exaggerate, Griamore would understate, but Gilthunder would tell him the truth.

Gil smiled apologetically.

Oh shit.

"So I was that obvious."

It was a rhetorical statement but Gilthunder answered anyway, "I'm afraid so."

Hendrickson glanced at Meliodas who was loitering around the door, not even bothering to pretend he wasn't eavesdropping. "You swore to me no one else had guessed." Years ago, before he'd driven out the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas had teased young, wide-eyed Hendrickson about his 'super-obvious' crush. But when Hendrickson had looked at him aghast, Meliodas had backtracked and sworn it was only super-obvious to him. No one else could tell.

Meliodas smiled brightly, "I lied." He wandered off to tell Elizabeth the news now that Hendy and Dreyfus were making it official.

Hendrickson just prayed that 'everyone' who knew didn't include Dreyfus himself.

Anyway!

"So you three…" he could not make himself say the word 'approve.' Who could possibly approve of him any more? "…don't mind?"

Howzer shrugged his broad shoulders. "No business of ours what you two do but since you asked: no. We don't mind."

Griamore just nodded but Gilthunder smiled again, "we love you Hendrickson, we want you and Dreyfus to be happy."

For anyone to say that was incredible. But for Gilthunder to say it…

Choked up, Hendrickson couldn't talk.

He hadn't deserved their forgiveness and he didn't deserve their love.

A weary sigh. Griamore got to his feet.

Before Hendrickson could ask what he was doing, Griamore had walked around the table they'd all been seated at, and scooped Hendrickson out of his chair and into a bone-crushing hug. "We do love you. And we do want you to be happy. So you'd better stop thinking that we all hate you and start being happy."

"Aww yeah! Group hug!" Grabbing Gilthunder in a grip that could dent metal, Howzer slung an arm around Griamore, almost squishing Gilthunder into Hendrickson.

Gilthunder bore this with long-suffering grace.

Hendrickson's heart warmed. He hadn't always had fantastic luck in his life but when it came to the people in it, he was truly blessed.

Or mostly blessed.

"So you've all seriously known this whole time?"

Griamore sighed again. "Let it go Hendy."


Done! Hope you liked it!