NNT ONE SHOTS

Important

M E L I Z A B E T H
A U

Summary: in which Elizabeth lets Meliodas know that she knows she's not important to him because of what he told Diane in vaizel, and Meliodas tells her the true meaning behind those words.

Time line: The night after the Vaizel festival

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THIRD PERSON POV
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"There's No Way i could do that to someone so important to me" Meliodas's words still echoed in Elizabeth's head.
It's what he had said to Diane when she was saddened by the fact that he didn't grope, or treat her the same way he did her.

She was happy Diane was cheered up by those words, but Elizabeth wanted to cry, because to her it meant something different.
It meant she wasn't important to Meliodas, and she found the pain of that realization more painful than anything else.

'I'm not...important to him' Elizabeth thought as she slowky made it up the stairs to the room she shared with Meliodas. Not wanting to confront, or be confronted by him she hoped he had already fallen asleep. After all she took extra king getting ready for bed this evening.

However Elizabeth wasn't so lucky. When she slowly pushed the door open, careg not to make it creak she discovered Meliodas sitting on the bed, tied up, seemingly waiting for her.

"You took your good time today Elizabeth" he grinned, then his look turned mischievous as she neared the bed and laid down.
"Today was quite something and I ache all over, so what do you say we cuddle?" He made a quick movement and suddenly had his knees on either side of her body.
It wasn't knew of him to do this, but tonight was different for Elizabeth...
"And who knows if you feel up to it..." she trailed off but from his grin she knew what he meant, but it was also obvious that he was joking around.

And knowing that caused a million thoughts run through Elizabeth's head.
'Why is he doing this?'
'I'm not important to him!'
'Is he just toying with me?'
Then suddenly Meliodas's eyes widened and he jumped back with great speed. Then he stared at her from a distance for longer than Elizabeth was comfortable with.

"Sorry" he eventually said and shocked Elizabeth by easily breaking out of his ropes. As pieces of rope was playing everywhere Elizabeth closed her eyes, and then when she opened them again he was gone.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hawk mama had come to a stop earlier in the day and dug herself into the ground, which meant that Meliodas could easily walk outside.
He breathed in the cold night air and walked around the boar hat till he found a spot where he decided to spend the night.

But when he layed down and looked up at the stars, he could only picture Elizabeth's face before him.
It made him visible winch before he let out a deep sigh.
"She's never looked at me that way before..." he whispered, only referring to this reincarnation of Elizabeth, but it still hurt.
"She looked...scared" he said sadly. He wondered what had prompted it.
Had he simply gone too far today? Or was it something else.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The next morning Meliodas walked into the boar hat with his hair even messier than usual and filled with leaves and grass.

"Whoa Cap'n, you look like something the pig dragged in" Ban laughed and Hawk simply grunted into his scraps.

Meliodas decided to ignore him and instead asked.
"Do you know where Elizabeth is?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, she hasn't come down yet" Ban nodded in the direction of the stairs, and quicker than anyone else could comment Meliodas had sped up the stairs.

'Is she scared to come down to see me?' He wondered, and it made him half just before his hand grabbed the door knob.
'Yeah that's probably the case' he lowered his head and his hand, deciding to give her all the space she might need, but then just as he was about to turn  away the door opened revealing Elizabeth in her uniform.

"Oh sir Meliodas, you're back!" She smiled. She had been very worried when he suddenly disappeared last night.

"Yeah, hey Elizabeth, I was wondering if you and I could talk?"

Immediately she became nervous again, but nevertheless she agreed and she went back into their room together.

Elizabeth sat down on the edge of the bed as Meliodas started pacing in front of her, running his hands through his hair in a distressed manner.
"Elizabeth" he suddenly said after king moments of silence.

"Yes!" She flinched and spoke louder than she intended to.

"I'm sorry about last night" he hung his head, and Elizabeth couldn't help but think that she had never seen him so genuine.
"I completely overstepped, and aaa result of that I..I scared you"

"No!" Elizabeth stood up.
"Sir Meliodas you could never scare me... that's... not what happened at all" she almost whispered the lady past as she looked away from him.

Meliodas perked up, happy that he hadn't frightened her, but still worrying about what else it could've been.
"Then what happened?"

"It's just....please stop toying with me" her voice was starting to shake as she looked into his now confused emerald green eyes.

"Huh?"

"I know I'm not important to you, so please, stop..." she felt tears gather in her eyes and she looked away once again.

"Not important? Elizabeth what the hell are you talking about?!" Meliodas was confused and terrified of the conclusion she had made, and also wondering how she'd come to this conclusion at all.
He trapped her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him "Of course you're important to me"

"But... but you said to Diane..." her tears started rolling.

"Oh" he felt something inside him break. He really had said something like that. And when Elizabeth was listening too "so that's what this is about"

She nodded and sniffled.

"There's No Way i could do that to someone so important to me" he related the words as he remembered them.
In his own mind they had meant something else entirely, but of course there was no way for others to pick up on that.
"What makes you think it was directed at Diane?"

"What?"

"Although you don't I do think of you as..." he trailed off, despite Elizabeth desperately wanting him to finish.
"I couldn't do those things to Diane because I couldn't possibly do that to you...because you're more important than anyone else Elizabeth, the last thing i ever wanted was to hurt you" his voice was steady and calm, not giving off a single hint of lies.

"I-...I... now I feel like such a fool" Elizabeth was in shock, and slowly sat onto the bed.

Meliodas simply chuckled and sat down next to her.
"Don't" he finally wiped done of the tears away. "This is on me, i had forgotten you were there when I said that, and didn't think much of it afterwards. I'm sorry" he kissed her cheek ever so gently which made her face erupt in west felt like flames, because now she knew that he was actually genuinely.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

So yes this is an AU, because in the manga and Anime this Issue was simple resolved by Meliodas telling her that the most important thing to him was Elizabeth safety after he saw that she was unharmed after the Vaizel battle.

It's a theory I read on tumblr that says that Meliodas played with double meanings when he said that to Diane and that he was actually referring to Elizabeth, I've always loved that theory and decided to bring it to life with this one shot