Love Me, Harm Me

I don't know (you)

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

.☀.🌑.☀.🌑.

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.