Quote of the Chapter:

"This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together." - My Last Duchess, Robert Browning

Chapter Forty-Four: I don't know (you)

There was no avoiding her now. As much as Meliodas King would love to forget about Elizabeth Liones, lock her up and bury her deep within the darkest caverns of his mind, there was simply no avoiding her now. For weeks he had been trying. For days he had been trying, forcing himself to restrain from texting, searching or calling for her.

Zeldris had been little help. Like the annoying thorn of brother he could be, the grumpy bastard just ate, commented and scowled. Every day he would talk about something new. First it was Gelda; next it was about the weather, how they should go to the opening of that new restaurant in Clapham; finally it was Elizabeth, about the pictures she'd been in.

Obviously, Meliodas had tried as much as he could to avoid it all. Busying himself, occupying his mind and time with work and nothing but. Numbers, stats and trends did wonders for a distraction-craving brain. Never before had Meliodas been so addicted to account-keeping. Never before had he been so absorbed, so transfixed, but incomes and outcomes.

"You know, he looks familiar," Zeldris stated one morning, a spoon of cereal half-hanging from his frowny mouth. Tapping at his phone screen, illuminated with a picture, he called for Meliodas' attention. "You recognise him, Mel?"

"Who?" Meliodas sighed, pulling himself away from his own phone screen to see what his brother was talking about. Instantly, he recognised the name across the top corner, decorated with pink hearts. Elizabeth. The girl he had locked away within her own box.

Below it was her picture, lit up with her lovely smile as she posed for the camera. Today must've been a free day because she wasn't in her office wear and instead sported her white jumper dress - something that had to be almost as old as their friendship. To Elizabeth's left was Diane, chestnut hair styled into two matching buns and decorated with a flower crown. Then, a new recurring figure in Elizabeth's day-to-day life, was a man. Long, silver hair, a stubbly chin and a pair of piercing blue eyes which were definitely familiar.

Try as he might, Meliodas couldn't hide the stab he felt to his heart.

"Yeah, that's Mael," Someone Meliodas knew well. Lurking about the campus, recording his own movements and eventually reporting them to the police. That guy had been a narc since day one and it seemed that he hadn't changed. Years ago he had always been watching out for Elizabeth, almost like he saw himself as a guardian angel; today it seemed he hadn't changed.

"Thought so," Zeldris hummed, dropping his spoon into his bowl with a sonorous clatter. "That bastard's still trying to get to you through her. Must be shit at his job if he doesn't know about the break up."

"It wasn't a break up," Rolling his eyes, Meliodas exhaled sharply as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "And, he's not stupid. He's probably banking on Elizabeth letting the truth out. I wouldn't blame her after half the shit I've done to her."

If Meliodas had been in her shoes, screwed a hundred times over by the same, lying bastard, he wouldn't have hesitated to get some sort of revenge. So much could be used against him. So many moments, memories and secrets could be shared and used to bring him down just how he had broken her down. There was a lot that Meliodas needed to pay for; there was a lot that Meliodas needed to atone for.

Even now, so many years into trying to do things right, he was slipping back into bad habits. In fact, he had given up on trying to get rid of them. Once again he was working for his father; once again he was getting drunk to oblivion just to drown out the white noise in his head. Only, this time, Elizabeth wasn't there to anchor him to reality. No-one really was. Not even Zeldris.

Maybe that was why he was becoming more irritable now. Prickly around the edges, a snappy, short-tempered creature, Meliodas was slowly morphing into the monster that was his old man. Really, it was inevitable. From his birth, this moment had always been coming. Elizabeth had only slowed it down.

"Are you shitting me right now?" Zeldris, wide eyed, looked almost incredulous as his hands slammed down on the table top. Almost as if he wanted to laugh from the lunacy of it all, a short huff of air left his lungs as Zeldris shook his head, "Elizabeth? Snitch on you? Ha."

Visible confusion would be too blatant of a term for the expression of complete bafflement sitting on Meliodas' face. Twisting at his lips and furrowing his brows, he looked the epitome of a person faced with an impossible answer - a wrong-answer signal when he had most definitely chosen the most common sense answer. After all he had done, to countless different people, who wouldn't want him jailed? Who wouldn't want him locked away, condemned to a lifetime of rotting away behind bars?

Meliodas himself thought he was deserving of a punishment to that scale. For weeks he had been waiting for it, counting down the seconds, the moments, until he would end up spiraling deeper down the path his own father had taken before him.

"You really don't know her, do you?" Zeldris was laughing now, almost full-bellied as his bowl of cereal rattled from his hand slapping the table top. Shaking his head as a snort escaped his system, the man couldn't help but chuckle as he looked at his elder brother; clearly wisdom around the subject of relationships did not come with age.

"Of course I know her," Scoffing, Meliodas scowled as he went to yank open the fridge. Agitation was rising in his system - that meant he needed to keep his mind occupied, keep his hands busy. Pulling out a yogurt, he ripped the silver foil cover off and dumped it in the bin. Hopefully, it would provide just enough calm within the storm of his frustrations.

"Well you clearly don't know her enough," Zeldris responded, equal parts smug and disappointed as he shook his head. Wiping remnant tears from his eyes, he raised a brow as he asked, "You and I both know that her loyalty runs way deeper than most. Do you really think that Elizabeth would snitch on you because your dumb ass broke her heart?"

Did he really think that? Well, to some degree, Meliodas did think so - but not because of all the recent things. Past things, instances where she had given up so much for him, were times that came to mind. There was a lot that Elizabeth had sacrificed for him. For years she had not really spoken to her mother, isolated and alone due to her decision to not apologise to the church.

Like many of the bad things that speckled Elizabeth's life, Meliodas was the catalyst to it all. If he had never met her then Elizabeth would have never blown up during her Sunday Sermon. If Meliodas had never nudged her that day, halfway across the rainy streets of London, she would have never ended up how she was now.

Everything that had happened could be blamed on him; Meliodas would blame it all on him. So why didn't she? After all he had done, all of the trouble and anguish and destruction he had brought into her life, how could Elizabeth just let him be?

Why couldn't she find it in herself to... hate him? Make it easier to except that she will never return because she will never want to. She will never love him again.

"She wouldn't tell on me," Meliodas sighed, a defeated thing as he slumped against the hard surface of the kitchen counter. Suddenly, the yogurt felt chilly in his hands, a block of ice in a pool of warm-blooded heat. "But- "

"Elizabeth's probably clocked the guy from ages ago," Zeldris cut him off, changing the direction of the conversation. Smiling fondly, he let out another small chuckle as he went back to scrolling, "Knowing her, she's still trying to protect you. If she really trusted Mael, she would have brought him to meet everyone else, right?"

"Yeah."

Never before had the chime of a notification felt so ominous. Even Zeldris had fallen silent, lips pinched as he stared curiously at his brother. Stunned, Meliodas could only swallow his spoonful of yogurt, brows furrowed as he pulled out his phone. Even though he hadn't seen anything yet, he couldn't help but feel anxious. There was only one person who would dare to message him so early on a Sunday.

'Guess who's finally making a comeback next week?'

Yeah there was no need to make a guess. Not with Diane. Not with her sneaky and conniving ways, often trying to get a rise out of him. Even if she only meant the best, clueless as she pushed her two combusting friends closer and closer together until they finally just burned away, together, leaving nothing but ash and charred bone behind.

There was a reason why Meliodas and Elizabeth had not seen each other for the better part of a month now. There was a reason why the phone calls stopped. Those late night texts that meant 'I missed you' but really said something much greater. Isolation protected her; distance made sure that he couldn't ever hurt her again. Elizabeth would not be like mum. But, also, Meliodas would not give himself the opportunity to screw up anymore.

Right now he was a rolling stone, heading down a path that was set up for him since birth. Elizabeth, bless her soul, had only delayed the inevitable. But even she couldn't get rid of it completely.

He'd always been a stupidly selfish being; selflessness was not a trait of his.

"Guess what?" Giving a smile laced with dry humour, Meliodas shook his phone in the air. "You jinxed it. Thanks Zel."

Because now he would have to put up with her once more, pretending that he had iced over when really he was thawing from the inside out.