Love Me, Harm Me

We're (no longer) interwoven

"It never occurred to me that our lives, until then so closely interwoven, could unravel and separate over a thing like that. But the fact was, I suppose, there were powerful tides tugging us apart by then, and it only needed something like that to finish the task." - Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

.☀.🌑.☀.🌑.

Who'd have thought that she'd be here again, bawling her eyes out on Jericho's sofa, halfway through a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream? Definitely not Elizabeth Liones, that's for sure.

Meliodas had lied to her, for years apparently. About something important, something life-shattering, that she'd thought he'd always been honest about. One thing that they had always promised to be transparent about, one thing that they had vowed to always tell the other about, and he had completely spat in her face with his lies about it. He stomped all over her transparency.

Who'd have thought that this was all it took? Meliodas had lied to her and that was enough. Facing that reality, being handed the truth in a sudden twist of cruel reality, was all it took for Elizabeth to finally snap. The camel's back had finally given in.

Never had she thought that it would get this far. Through all their arguments, through all their trials and tribulations, Elizabeth had always believed that she and Meliodas would never end up falling into such bad terms. As things calmed down last year, as they came to terms with coexisting, Elizabeth had always thought - had always firmly told herself - that they would remain tightly interwoven, like strands of thread in embroidery, never to be tugged free from their permanent patterns. How stupid she had been. How foolishly naive.

"I told you," Jericho mumbled around her warm apple crumble, pale custard dribbling down her chin. Blue light from the TV flashed across her face as she glared softly, wiping away the offending dairy product. "I warned you."

"I know," Elizabeth murmured in return, sniffing as she set her ice-cream aside. Just for her, specially bought, Jericho had reserved her all time favourite of chocolate fudge brownie. Just for her, Jericho had set up the sofa bed, fluffed out her blankets and pulled out the trashy rom-coms. All for sad, pathetic her... "I'd just - I thought..."

"That he would care?" Jericho finished, raising a snarky brow. Just like her expression, her voice said it all; she considered Meliodas like the unwanted shit on her shoes. "We all think that people care, Elizabeth. That's why so many people fall victim to the stars in their eyes. We paint images of people, of the ones we love, that are impossible to uphold. Then, when we discover the truth, or they fail to uphold it, well... that's when things get messy."

Messy was an understatement in her predicament. Oh messy was just covering the surface, picking up a tiny piece and staring at it with the naked eye. Even that tiny piece, a mere fraction of the entire picture, lacked the true scale of fuckery and lies that had built up over the past two years. At least a trillion messies would have to be added together to even equate to a quarter of how messy this all was.

"Yes, I know, but," Elizabeth bit her lip, already feeling foolish as she felt the excuses piling on her tongue, clogging up her throat. Always, she was making excuses. Anxiously, her fingers toyed with the tub of ice-cream, tapping against the cool container, "Things were getting better. We were- "

"Elizabeth you need to stop twisting yourself in two over this guy," Jericho interrupted, firm as she shoved another spoonful of piping hot crumble into her mouth. Staring straight at the TV she drew attention to the characters, a group of women attempting to seek revenge on the supposed 'heart-breaker' who had used their friend. "I get that you love your roommate but you can't tangle yourself up for someone else. It's not healthy."