Guardian Demon (A Nanatsu No Taizai Fanfic)

A Moment of Silence

Elizabeth POV

Meliodas held me beside him, and I coughed, mentally asking him to let me go. I stood up, and his arms fell. 

"Meliodas, why didn't you come until the last second?" I asked. He looked at me, wanting to rephrase the question. "Why didn't you come when I called?"

"I did." He said. "I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner, but I still need to have time to get here. I heard you. I was sprinting."

"How did Zeldris find me?" I asked, resting my hands in front of me. 

"I don't know. Don't ask me, I wasn't there." Meliodas shot a why-did-you-ask look. Meliodas seemed unreasonably uneasy. I didn't do anything, was it just Zeldris?

Ban dashed in, swinging the door open, making sure we both were okay. "Captain! You went off without saying where! What did you do?" 

"I followed Zeldris, but I lost track of him when he started teleporting around. That's when he got to Elizabeth. I got here before he was about to do anything." He put his hand behind his head and bent his knee. 

"So what now?" Ban asked. He leaned to the side and rested on the side of the door; he put his hands in his pockets and shot a look at Meliodas. 

"I don't know. Maybe we should just do nothing for a bit. I could use the rest; why don't we just stop by Vaizel. The fighting festival will happen soon." Meliodas suggested. Ban nodded his head, and I played around with my skirt. 

Ban sat up from his pose and went to tell the others Meliodas's decision. 

Meliodas sat down on the bed behind us, and his head rested in his hands. 

"Meliodas...." I asked. "Are you okay?" I stroked his back and felt scars. "Wait, what are these?" I asked. I felt lines scratched on his back and the skin over it had just not healed right.

"Oh, nothing." He whispered. Whenever someone says "nothing" that means that something is terribly wrong. How do I know this? I have lived with my sisters, the royal family, and they always cover up political arguments.

I lifted up his shirt and saw that there were seven small scars scattered on his back. "Meliodas, what IS THIS?" 

"I said NOTHING!"He was obviously uneasy. He flipped his leg over the other and started twiddling his thumbs.

"Meliodas, please calm down." I asked. "I didn't mean any harm by asking, I just wanted to know if you are okay." 

His wide green eyes gazed up to meet mine, but that look was replaced when he averted his glance and looked at his twiddling thumbs. "I'm sorry." He grunted.

"Now, I bet your friends are worried about you. Why don't you go downstairs and have some fun?" I asked, pushing Meliodas to stand up and go downstairs. He swallowed and stood up. 

"I'm such a failure...." He said. 

"Meliodas? You're being so cliche. Just get up and go downstairs."

He looked at me, took in a long breath, and walked out the door and down the stairs. With each step, I heard one person downstairs cheer, "Meliodas! You're okay!" I especially heard Merlin cheer, "Our little tavern-owning toddler is back!"

With that, my face stretched into a smile, and I tightened my tie. We would be expecting customers sometime soon.