Oneshots!

#77 Breakdown.

I promise requests are still in the works! I just keep getting inspired for different things and am having a hard time writing some of them. However that is no excuse as I asked for requests and want you all to get to read your suggestions! So I will keep trying I promise. Also for all of you that say this is similar to Scarlet's story, this is not meant to be a copy! I just really liked Scarlet's oneshot and wanted to write my own version. Please go read their oneshot too! T^T

Meliodas jumped foward as his head hurt and it felt like air had just come back to him. What had happened? Where was he? How did he get here? Where was Eliza.... oh. Right. That's what happened.

Listening to the waves as sound came back to him, he was still puzzled as to how he could've gotten here since the demon had previously taken a plunge into them.

"You're finally back."

Blinking at the voice, the blond subconsciously tensed as he realized she was the one that had to of pulled him out of the water. Next comes the lecture.

"Why are you wasting your lives like this? Why waste time you could be spending trying to save Sis-Sis?"

"Not like I'm succeeding very much... This just being another time to prove it.."

"Just because the curse activated doesn't mean you failed her... As long as she keeps coming back and emotion is still left in you, you haven't failed yet. So why do the very thing that makes you lose more and more of that emotion?"

"It would be easier if I did..."

He muttered it more to himself than to her, but she still managed to hear it.

"Don't say that."

"Why? It's true isn't it? The whole reason we got cursed to begin with is because of our love for each other. So strong it couldn't be broken by death, so more drastic measures had to be taken... Don't you get it!? This sick, twisted game our parents are playing is to break us and play on our love for each other! If I didn't love her, if I didn't fall in love with every single version of her that comes my way, if I didn't FEEL anything at all this would end! It would be better for both of us. She wouldn't suffer like this, and NEITHER WOULD I!"

The last part was yelled. So tired, so angry, already breaking. No, already broken. But Merlin wasn't giving up on him this easy, even if she knew how the ninety-five previous losses before this Elizabeth had weighted on Meliodas.

"You're right. You wouldn't feel the suffering anymore.. but you still would be. You may not feel it, you may want to welcome that numbness... but deep down you'd still suffer. Because without her? You're incomplete. If the control your father had over you couldn't stop you from loving her before, how would this be any different? You'd only destroy the very things that made her fall for you... that made you love yourself and feel like enough for the first time in the thousand years you spent without her. Do you really want to lose that? Do you really want to forget the person you fought for, not just her... but the person you grew to love to be? Do you really want to break the part of you that vowed to break this? Do you really want to give up on her? On you?"

"ENOUGH! Please... enough."

Tears were threatening to leave his eyes holding so much pain and grief in them.

"Don't do that to me... Don't say things like that... You know I want to save Ellie... I HAVE to save her... I won't give up... I can't give up.... I don't have a choice... But I.... I don't know how much longer I can do this. I have to save her.... but I'm breaking Merlin. I'm breaking and I'm scared that even though I'm trying so hard, even though I love her more than anyone in the world, in the end it won't matter... I'll simply fade away with nothing but a hollow shell left.. I already know it's happening... I can feel it happening.. What if I can't save her? What if I lose myself before that happens?"

"That's exactly why you need to stop ending your life every time she loses hers.. and I know if you ever actually told her about the suicides, Sis-Sis would tell you the same thing."

"But I... I can't take it. Even if it's only for a second, I have peace when I die... a glimpse of the real thing. An escape from all of this... what am I supposed to do without that relief? Even if I don't lose my emotions from the curse, my sanity will go if I have to stand one more death Merlin..."

"Then hold onto the day where they will stop. Hold onto the day you two get to live free rather than the cage you're trapped in now."

"Free...? I don't think I even know what that is at this point.."

"Then imagine. Imagine what it'll be like, and make it your reality. Stop succumbing to the now and ending your future before it's begun. Fight. Fight every second of this battle, and even if you end up on the losing side, you'll know you did everything you possibly could instead of gave up."

His head lifting to look at her eyes burning with determination, Meliodas let out a tired but slightly relieved sigh as that was exactly what he needed to hear, he asked a question he had several times before, but this time with a new mindset.

"Can I see her?"

She nodded and left the room for a moment before returning with a small bundle he already knew was Elizabeth's new life.

"I won't stop fighting for you Ellie... I promise. I'll break this curse, and one day... even if it takes another hundred or even thousand years... we'll be free.

Together."
_________________________________________

The memory had come to mind when seeing his two kids play in the castle garden while Elizabeth watched with him. Mainly one part, his desperate want but complete hopelessness of getting..

Freedom.

Freedom to be with Elizabeth without constant danger and fear, freedom to be his own person with her, freedom to just finally have peace. Something he had wanted for so, so, long. And yet he had never gotten to experience any of it. It was almost funny how much he wanted the freedom he fantasized about, but he never knew what it would feel or be like.

That is until now, in this one moment, here. As he watched his kids play without a care in the world, the kids he and made and raised, the kids that had him as their father. As he had his sweet wife and queen by his side resting her head on his shoulder without any of the pain, fear, or urgency in her cerulean eyes that he had grown accustomed to.

She was happy, she was at peace, and she was living. Living a life with him, all memories intact and by complete choice.

It was here that he knew was true freedom was. Freedom from the burdens his mind carried, freedom from the baggage of his old life, freedom of the pain they had experienced trying to build this life..

It was here in this one, simple, moment, that he knew exactly what freedom felt like.. what peace felt like.

"This. This is this is the moment that has made everything worth it."

"Hmm? What do you mean Meli?"

"Having this one moment with you? Sitting here with you as OUR kids play outside? Feeling you next to me completely at peace and happy? This right here has made every single moment of the pain we went through worth it. This, this is the moment I fought for. The life I fought for. And I'm not losing it again. We're not just surviving anymore Ellie... were living. And I can't wait to spend every second of this life with you."

I hope you like this chapter! I'm sorry it's so sad. T.T

1391 words.