Every Breath (Melizabeth)

souless.

Meliodas pov

the smell of smoke filled my senses, the hushed sounds of panic and sadness filling in the void of my mind. it felt as though my body was being jostled, distant thumps that came with shakes to my own being. a scent of sweat, blood, rain and tears came from all around. opening my own eyes felt impossible as i struggled to do so, feeling strange throbs throughout my soul.

despite all of this however, i felt safe. as if there was no longer anything to fear of worry over, every fiber of my being telling me to go back to sleep. it felt suffocating the way my body felt, warm, secure, like everything was okay now as a warm but bloodied form seemed to be held against my own.

soft familiar curves pressed against me, a heartbeat all too welcomed by my soul, the mating bond purring under my skin. all of these things are what gave me the strength to open my eyes, feeling a jolt go through me when i realized i was in diane's bag. looking around was difficult but after activating my mana i was able to see fine, looking around curiously before looking to see who was pressed against me.

a black eye, a cut lip, a cheek purple and swollen with bruising, bandaging wrapped around her neck as blood seeped through, her body wrapped as if for safety. it was Her, it was Elizabeth. everything in me ached at how in pain she looked, even her expression looked agonizing.

i wanted nothing more then to wrap my arms around her, to kiss her endlessly, to scream how sorry i was to her. for not only did i fail to protect her, but i failed to get her back, to carry her away from her pain. the amount of pain, the amount of fear, whatever torment she must have faced, and all because i couldn't serve the bare minimum duty as her mate to keep her safe.

silent tears tracked down my face, feeling happy that the sins set us together because now i could enjoy her warmth. it felt great to be pressed so close to her, to feel her, though shallow, breath puffed against me.

"Ellie..... I'm so..... just.... th-thank you.... for hanging in th-there" the mumbled words broken and quiet slipped free of me, causing me to squeeze my eyes shut against the feeling raging inside me.

after awhile of silence i noticed the pace of Diane's movement changed, slowing down steadily with muffled sounds of talking. soon she came to a full stop, the jostled feeling of the bag being slid off her shoulder and set down.

the bag being unzipped combined with bright light shining in against my eyelids, a soft breeze with the scent of a river. quiet sniffles as someone's hand suddenly rubbed some of the tears from my cheeks gently, a hiccup accompanying their silence.

"how are they?" Diane's whispering voice asked, her voice sounding cracked.

"Lady Elizabeth's wounds look the same, i think her bleeding finally stopped..... but the captain is crying in his sleep" he responded quietly, sounding pained while he sniffled.

"do you think that maybe..... their.... Mating bond is causing him to.... maybe cause him to feel what she feels?" she asked softly, the sound of her sitting down accompanying this.

"i-" "No, i'm not in any physical pain....... i just-........... th-thank you b-both..... for taki-taking care of her" i stammered out, my voice hoarse and cracked as i forced my eyes open.

the light made me want to close my eyes again, but i ignored it, sitting up slowly despite the dizziness and moving to stand. king's hand on my shoulder stabilized me as i stood, out of the corner of my eye i spotted his chastiful floating above, appearing to have blood stains on it.

once out of the bag i leaned against it to balance, huffing in exhaustion as they watched in silence. after glancing up at them i frowned at the worried looks they both shared, before looking over at king's chastiful again, only feeling more curious as i took more details of what appeared to be a maimed corpse up there.

"Who's that?" i asked quietly, feeling strange spikes of worry shoot up my spine as i took in the red leather pants.

they both shared yet another worried glance, more tears starting down diane's cheeks as she looked away as if too upset to say anything. so i looked at king expectantly, noticing even he couldn't seem to get a word out to instead begin lowering down his chastiful for me to see.

the sight a of a perfectly healed body, coated in blood with dull unseeing eyes staring into nothing at all made me freeze. my best friend, not breathing as he laid there still. there wasn't a single wound on him and yet, there wasn't any life to his eyes. his expression was blank, his usual laughs of me believing he could ever die no where to be found.

"wh-what? n-no........ th-this isn't funny..........." i stammered as my throat closed up, unable to look away from him.

"he-he's the one who saved h-her...... he's the one who-who banda-bandaged her too........." king stammered out, his voice quivering as he spoke.

"n-NO! th-that's not- that's not possible! he-he........ he's supposed to be immortal......." i cried out, trembling as i struggled to focus.

"....... estarosa......... he fought against estarosa by himself.......... his soul w-was......" he struggled to get out, turning his face away as he sniffled.

————————————————

there was nothing to talk about as i carried Elizabeth into the tavern gently, unable to hear the sounds of excitement from those who didn't know what happened, all of their voices sounding distant and muffled as i made my way up the stairs. the only keeping me from breaking down was knowing i needed to take care of Elizabeth, knowing i had to hold onto it and lock it away i order to properly take care of her.

once at our door was when i realized king had followed me up the steps, opening my and Elizabeth's door for me and closing it behind me. the room looked like no one had been in it for quite some time and it made me realize that it had been awhile since me or Elizabeth slept here, dust gathered on almost every item in the room and cobwebs in the corner by the ceiling.

between bartra trying to keep Elizabeth away from me, me taking her to the celestial realm and her being stolen from me. it feels almost unnatural to be in here again, almost unreal and like a distant dream. even her journal and pen rest exactly where she left them, the blanket on her side of the bed still more styled then mine.

after propping her up in the chair i walked over to the bed, yanking the dusty bedding off and chucking it off to the side. opening up the closet to find some new stuff for the bed, feeling a smile pull my lips at the sight of Elizabeth's color organized side of the closet compared to my almost completely black and white side not remotely organized side of the closet.

once done selecting just a plain set of grey and white bedding i brought it back over to the bed, half-ass putting it together but mostly just making sure to put extra pillows for Elizabeth to have extra cushioning. once that was done i walked back to Elizabeth, feeling a shiver work its way through me when pulling her into my arms.

she made a quiet noise when i was setting her down, causing me to cringe as i looked her over to make sure her wounds didn't open back up. after assessing that her wounds didn't open back up pulled the blanket back over her, adjusting the pillows again to make sure she was comfortable.

"you have no idea how much i missed you......." i mumbled incredulously, feeling my hearts ache with the want to kiss her and hold her, beg for her forgiveness for failing to keep her safe.

after some time of simply watching, unable to really look away as it been far too long since i'd seen her last. the feeling of the tavern shaking told me hawk's mom was moving, not knowing i should probably go downstairs to console the others.

heaving a sigh i turned on my heel, leaving the room and heading downstairs to the others as i dreaded the fact of what was to happen, who was being mourned. he wasn't supposed to be able to die, but his soul, despite his own immortality, was completely mortal. once on the base floor it was silent, the sins and hawk scattered about the room as king's chastiful floated in the middle of the room with Ban on it.

everyone's heads were down, all seeming unable to look up in worry of looking at him. hawk was the only one near him, curled up on the floor next to him crying.

"alright, that's enough of that...... Ban wouldn't be pleased to see everyone so down in the dumps about him, so let's do what he'd want and have a drink, yeah?" i beamed with practiced ease, knowing how to hide my own emotion from many years of practice.

"b-but ban is-" "passed on, but do you want his death to be in vein? no, let's do what made him happy........ plus, we gotta discuss what to with elaine. i mean she's going to be heartbroken" i interrupted him, smiling widely as i walked behind the counter to grab some ale for everyone.

"yes, the captain is correct, there is no reason to mope about" gowther chimed in out of nowhere, walking out of the storage room with a jar before he sat down at a table to examine it.

"no that's not what i said. i said being sad isn't what he would have wanted" i corrected him easily, grabbing mugs for everyone to drink out of.

"....... okay....... th-then.... what do we do?....." diane sniffled, hiccupping slightly as she looked up at me.

"well we gotta do what Ban would want. He loved Elaine more then anything, so we're going to take care of her........ as i.... i saw Ban as a brother..... so i'll treat Elaine as a sister" i responded slowly, being careful not to think to much about anything so as to avoid too much emotion showing.

"y-yeah.... Ban would like that" king responded quietly, sitting on one of the stools by the window.

"mhm, indeed...... so let's not sulk, let's do as ban liked and celebrate the victories we do have, we have each other right? we have Elizabeth now right? and let's not forget, when we reach the celestial realm, our duty must include Elaine, she's going to need as much comfort as we can all offer" i added with a grin, finishing pouring their drinks to pick ban up off of king's chastiful to carry him upstairs.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

-Zoe