Greed and Despond (Ban x Sin!Reader)

8

"Alright, everyone! Let's get to work! Give it everything you've got!"

After the captain gave his less-than-inspirational speech about our jobs, everyone went their separate ways. I headed toward the tavern, begrudgingly getting ready to serve people and clean; Diane skipped to the left of the building, situating herself into a comfortable 'sales girl position' (she just sat on her knees); Ban completely abandoned the group, heading into town- it didn't seem like anyone (other than me) noticed his disappearance; and Ellie ran up to Meli, talking to him as he made his way to the bar as well.

I pushed open the door when I reached the tavern, holding it open with my foot until the two lovebirds came in. I let it shut as they walked over to the bar counter, the captain standing behind it and Ellie standing between two stools. After a few more moments conversing, Ellie skipped over to me. I had removed the hood off of my head and was tying my hair into a ponytail. I grabbed a rag when she reached the table I was at, and was now leaning over it as I began to wipe the table. When she grabbed a rag as well, I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" I asked, "You got pretty beat up..."

"Oh no!" She smiled, beginning to wipe the opposite end of the table. "My injuries don't bother me anymore, and Lord Meliodas said that if I wasn't hurting anymore, it would be okay if I helped out!"

I sighed, but gave a small smile. "Alright, but don't push yourself, okay? If anything is too much of a strain let me do it."

She nodded happily, giving my a closed-eye smile before moving on to the next table. I rolled my eyes, smiling to myself as I moved to another table as well. We both began loading the empty pints that were scattered around into the sink, where Meli washed them. We swept the floor made sure everything was in order while Diane continued to shout advertisements about the Boar Hat, or "Boar Roast" as she called it.

I thought this was totally useless- the village was obviously abandoned. If anybody lived here, they would've come out to investigate the giant girl and pig that had randomly entered their town. If they were too dense to notice that, then surely Diane's shouts would've grabbed some attention.

When the entire bar was spotless, I began to doubt our captain's plan. I walked over to the bar, hopping onto the counter and turning toward Meli. "Do you really think anybody lives here?"

"Sure," he shrugged, drying the last pint. "It's a village, isn't it?"

My eyeborw twitched irritably, "Okay, fine. If people do live here, and do decide to come here, what makes you think they'll know anything about the Capitol of the Dead? Or King, for that matter?"

"I dunno," he shrugged, "Intuition?"

"You're telling me we came here on a hunch?" I groaned, leaning up against a support beam. "I wish I stayed back in Dalmary..."

"Aw, don't say that!" Meli smiled, putting the cup he was drying down with the other clean cups and placing his hands on his hips. "I'm 65% sure we'll find some useful information here!"

"That's not helping your case!" I shouted, leaning forward and hitting him on the head with my fist. He laughed, smiling cheerily at me. I huffed, rolling my eyes and leaning back against the wood support beam that marked the end of the bar counter.

"If you don't mind me interjecting," Said a soft voice. Both Meli and I turned toward it, finding Ellie smiling shyly at us. "I was wondering what kind of person Lord King was..."

"What kind of person he was..." Meli muttered, putting his fingers on his chin in a quizzical manor. After a moment, his face lit up and he lightly put his fist into an open palm. "He was like the mascot- oh, or the pet!- of the sins!"

"What are you talking about!?" Hawk exclaimed, "What kind of respectable establishment allows a pet inside?!"

Both Ellie and the captain stared at Hawk, the irony in his statement painfully apparent. I snorted, covering my mouth. "I wouldn't say it that way..." I turned toward Ellie and Hawk, smiling. "He was more like the big brother. He was really sensitive and kind and he always cleaned up the messes we made. He's probably the best person out of the eight of us..."

"We need an example!" Meli exclaimed, and I shrugged.

"How about Ban's stuffed animal collection?" I suggested, the event being the first thing that came to mind when thinking about King's character.

"Oh, yeah! Ban went through a phase of collecting stuffed animals," Meli explained to Ellie, who squealed.

"That's so cute!" She laughed, smiling widely.

I laughed as well, expanding on the story. "He used to lay in this giant pile of them! They nearly filled his entire room! Too bad they were all stolen.... I always wondered what started the obsession with sneaking into kid's rooms and stealing their stuffed animals... It's kinda weird to think that he randomly snuck into a kid's bedroom at night and took their stuffed animal."

"When King heard about it... it was probably the most angry I have ever seen him. He was like, 'Is that true?! So that's why I heard so many children crying throughout town!'" Meli added, laughing as he did a bad impression of King's deep, gruff voice. Ellie, Hawk, and I laughed along with him.

"He started sobbing, saying how 'in each of those animals was a child's deepest fears and happiest memories.' I swear, that's when him and Ban started their feud. He wouldn't talk to Ban for the next couple months," I remembered fondly, smiling at the memories of the two's constant bickering.

"When Ban passed out drunk later that day, King took all of the stuffed animals and delivered them to kids of the kingdom. He flew them to each house individually- making sure that each kid got the right animal. I would say it's cute if it weren't so creepy," Meli continued, leaning into the bar with his chin resting in his palm. I grinned, laughing softly as I looked out the window.

"Lord King sounds like he's a bit different... but he seems to have a very kind heart," Ellie concluded, smiling happily. I nodded in agreement.

"And it just proves Ban is a good-for-nothing bastard," Hawk added, flopping onto his side as he stared at Meli and I. "I bet those two didn't get along very well."

"You could say that," I snorted.

"Still, though, King followed Ban around everywhere he went," The captain shrugged, obviously remembering all the times King insisted on following Ban into the kingdom.

"Yeah, probably to clean up his messes," I added, smiling wider. My eyes fell for a moment as I remembered countless more times that those two were together wreaking havoc. "It was a weird relationship- they were like an unlikely dynamic duo."

Ellie giggled, and after a moment or two, the rest of us joined in. Our laugh was cut short, however, by Diane. She was looking through a window, bent down so that she could talk to us. She was frowning- no doubt because no people had arrived.

"Nobody came..." she pouted. Ha, I called it. "I tried my hardest, but nobody came!"

"No shit," I said, turning toward the captain. "Nobody lives here because it's deserted."

"Oh well," sighed the captain, "looks like I was wr-"

He stopped short, his eyes widening as he stared at the door. It seemed that Diane sensed it too, because she turned her head and gazed out into the village. There was a sudden flood of magical power in this area- one that didn't belong to any of the sins we had with us. It didn't feel like a Holy Knight's either- it was different.

"Do you thinks it's..." I started, hopping down from the counter and staring at the captain. He nodded.

"There's no doubt. It's him."