[Words: 796]
.
.
.
.
Chapter 5:
First Night
.
.
.
He lay there, staring at the ceiling, feeling the good kind of exhausted and oh-so ready to go to sleep but—
But sleep eluded him, and the reason why was asleep roughly three meters above him.
Princess Elizabeth of Liones; his Elizabeth; his Beth.
Meliodas rolled onto his side, curling up around his pillow as he squeezed his eyes closed in a failing attempt to sleep. But after five minutes, he gave up knowing it would be useless.
He huffed, almost angrily at the way his brain denied him rest because—
Elizabeth was upstairs.
Meliodas shifted and rolled onto his back again with a defeated sigh. He supposed, in a way, it was a good thing. That Hawk had found her, that is. Who knew who else could have come across her? There were plenty of unsavoury men who wouldn't think twice before taking advantage of an unconscious young woman.
A shiver travelled up his spine at the thought.
But a laugh welled up at the back of his throat at how Fate worked—they were always brought back together…
It had been ten years since he had last seen her; she had been but a child—eight years old—and so damn curious about the world. But what still bothered him to this day was that he couldn't remember anything but the morning of the day they had been hailed as murderers.
All he heard in his sleep for weeks after was Beth calling for him and Merlin.
("Melly! M'lyn.")
Meliodas was amazed she remembered him in all honesty—it had been ten years and memories fade. That Beth had looked so… so unsurprised to learn it was him that found her, but then again, she did have a panic attack, and before they could even swap names those knights had shown up looking for her…
He was quick to bury his anger at the knight's sheer audacity to even attempt to harm his Beth.
How dare he try and kill her. We should have killed him, not spared his pathetic life.
Meliodas clenched his jaw, squeezed his eyes shut and clutched at the pillow so tightly he was surprised it didn't rip.
Bad, bad thoughts. He couldn't allow that part of himself to taint his thoughts because it would only lead him down a dark, dark path.
When he had seen Beth at the riverside, unconscious and vulnerable. He had been hit with the sight of pink hair, a blood-covered face, and gaping wound.
Liz.
It was too uncomfortably alike to Liz's… Liz's—Meliodas sat up, tugging harshly at his hair.
Stop, stop.
He can't—
He thought of Beth instead—silver-white hair pulled into a bun, blue eye with a black eyepatch that peered at him curiously and intelligently. Fingers that were lightly coarse from years of sewing and handling a bow. Short status like himself, evenly balanced lips, thick dark lashes, that crinkle at the corner of her eye when she was amused—
Seventeen. She was seventeen, Meliodas reminded himself. Technically considered sexually mature but—young.
Well, considered prime marrying age by most fathers but that was beside the point.
Meliodas dragged his hands down his face. He was doomed, he would always love his Elizabeth, even now knowing she was so close had his hearts drumming and instincts stirring.
…Likely hadn't even had her first kiss yet. No doubt she had admirers, Elizabeth was always so beautiful and if anybody had dared too—
Nope, stop you idiot!
But Meliodas was concerned about the reason Beth was forced to escape Liones in the first place—if she was right, then something even worse than politicking in an attempt to gain more control, whether that was to overthrow the King or something else within the kingdom, was happening.
(What if this was part of what Merlin had seen all those years ago?)
He was worried—the Holy Knights using the King's illness to seize control seemed to only be the beginning.
Meliodas wondered if Beth had trouble falling to sleep—despite knowing him, this was an unfamiliar place and unfamiliar could leave someone tossing and turning for a while before finding some sort of peace.
Through that deadened twine, he reaches out, barely daring to touch it for fear of sparking a reaction but all he felt was slumber. Peaceful and relaxed.
She was sleeping.
For a moment, Meliodas felt bewildered—how could she have fallen asleep so… so easily?
Did she just feel that comfortable and safe around him, even after all this time and the fact he and the others had supposedly killed the previous Great Holy Knight Zaratras?
Meliodas wanted to scoff but sighed instead, why did everything have to be so—so cruel?