Our First Fall (Melizabeth)

21. A Free Ride

I sat in the study thinking over everything Meliodas told me the evening before. We had another day of all-meat meals as he explained that the Commandments would all be parting soon, that he would take over training the newest troops and that soon the entire city would be free for me to explore after he showed me around, "then our relationship will be known through the city." He had looked apprehensive but determined.

When I'd asked why he looked hurt when we'd been in the hall, he told me he didn't like that I'd acted differently in front of the others. "You can be yourself with me, always. No matter who is watching or where we are." Just thinking about it made my face grow warm. He'd told me he wanted us to be together, to force the world to change for us. For the first time he sounded like he would like us to be long term.

His words were sweet but he still hadn't touched me.

That night we were simply soft with one another. I wasn't near brave enough to initiate our intimacy and I wondered if my joke about keeping his hands to himself had affected him. It couldn't have, right? He knew it was a joke. We'd orgasmed every night since the ocean view on our travels back, yet as soon as we arrived here... nothing. I missed it, my body actually pulsed when I thought about it, as if in anticipation, longing.

I was scratching at Estarossa's head while he napped when the door of the study burst open, Mina falling over herself when she sees me. Her darkness swirled with purple, leaking off her as she moved. Something was wrong. I didn't know her that well, having only spent a day with her but with the expression she was making, anyone would be able to tell how distraught she is.

"It's Polly!" She exclaimed, taking my wrist and forcing me to follow. "She's fallen, I wasn't fast enough to catch her and she's hurt, the baby!" I wasn't fighting her to begin with but with that I took to the air, her letting go of me as I followed her much faster off my feet. Mina guided me to the kitchens. I'd never been in here but Meliodas had pointed out the door to me, which swung wide under Mina's force.

Polly was on the floor, clutching at her tummy and I ignored the tipped chair, spilled broth and meat chunks across the stone under her. I dropped beside her, hands going to her belly but her pained face turned sharp, her grip on my wrist surprisingly painful.

"Save my baby." She orders me, daring me to disobey her.

"Of course," I relent, moving to feel her, exploring with my warm glow. "The amniotic sac is detaching," I tell her, thinking back to so long ago when Lady Graelle had brought me with her on the midwifery visits when I had been a teenager. I shifted my position, leaning over her and pressing on the other side of her stomach. Using as precise a point as possible, I focused my magic to knit the sac back in place. Mina took Polly's hand gripping it as she screamed, in fear or from the feeling of my magic moving inside her, I didn't know.

Still, when I finished we were both panting in heavy breaths. I helped her to stand and Mina was crying, thanking me again while Ms. Polly felt her belly, shocked and looking up at me. "You healed Mina and now this... our family owes you a great deal." I wave her off but she insists.

"Not as repayment but I do want to be a better cook. I promise I'm hopeless but if you could let me watch I may get better." I smile as she nods so quickly. "After tasting Meliodas' cooking, I don't think I'm near as hopeless as him." I make a face with my tongue out, joking to ease the tension and both Polly and Mina stare, more tense than before. What? I grow self-conscious but the moment passes when Mina feels Polly's belly and they talk together about the baby as if I'm not here.

Polly declares herself perfect, even her aches and nausea were gone, she said. I smiled, glad. Polly's darkness had dissipated under my healing glow but it flicked purple around her belly once more, renewed. I'd met her before but after seeing her in pain a moment ago, she did look younger now. Perhaps she'd been suffering for a little while and hadn't said anything? Her eye wrinkles were gone, her mouth rested easier.