Twisted Love

Job Reassignment

Throughout the next week, the seven deadly sins were busy with small projects for King Bartra and spent their time at the castle and inner city. While usually the team liked to work at the castle since they made many friends there through Elizabeth, doing so now was a bit awkward for Diane since King was back with the team and they were seeing Howzer much of the day.

Howzer seemed to be extra alert too, brought on by Diane now carrying his child. He knew she was strong but now everytime she did heavy duty work he felt nervous, he only slightly knew what pregnant humans should and should not be doing but especially had no idea what precautions giants should have during pregnancy... so everything felt nerve wrecking! Little by little throughout the week Howzer had been worrying as a result, and started watching Diane like a hawk.

This morning Diane, the other sins, and some of the Holy Knights were asked by King Bartra to help rebuild buildings in town that had been damaged. Diane still felt comfortable enough to do the work and gladly tried to help the team, however Howzer couldn't hold in his growing concern.

At first he tried to slowly approach the situation by whispering to Diane, "Maybe you shouldn't do this, Diane. I know you are strong but we don't know how things like this will affect the baby yet." Diane brushed off his request at first by saying, "I'm sure it's okay, Howzer. I will ask Merlin soon, but remember giants are much stronger than humans. This is nothing for me!" Diane pushed forward past Howzer to where Ban, King, and the captain had already started to work.

Howzer stood his ground and started walking fast to catch up with her and tried to block her walk way to slow her down so he could again voice his concerns, "I mean it, Diane. I don't think you should do this until we learn more about giant pregnancies. I know when my cousin was pregnant she had to be very careful with what she did and ate." Diane was growing more and more annoyed with Howzer. She wanted him to back off because she felt he was making a scene when this pregnancy was supposed to be a secret.

"Howzer, you are making a scene! The only people who know other than you and your parents are Merlin, Elizabeth, and Meliodas. I don't want everyone else to know yet, and you are singling me out. Now I am telling you, I am a giant. I am not like your human cousin or any other humans who are pregnant.", whispered Diane angrily. Then he retorted, "Yes, Diane. You are not human, but you are carrying a half human baby." Diane rolled her eyes at her ex-boyfriend and walked up to King and Ban to help them build.

King had noticed Diane seemed visibly frustrated and asked, "What is wrong, Diane. I can tell you are upset, and why did Howzer keep trying to talk to you. He seriously needs to back off. I don't like how he still looks at you." Diane then began to feel irritated by King's jealousy too, normally she could handle it but she felt so emotional she snapped at him, "NOTHING IS WRONG, KING." King gave her a shocked look, for she had never yelled at him like that then turned quickly away to keep building.

Howzer hated that Diane was ignoring his worries so casually that he decided to take his concern up to a higher authority of the team, Meliodas. Now that he knew Meliodas also knew about the pregnancy, he could talk to him. "Hey Meliodas, can I talk to you in private?" Meliodas nodded his head and the other seven deadly sins stared at the two as they briefly walked away.

"Meliodas, I don't think Diane should be lifting this heavy stuff with us. I keep asking her to wait till she can learn more from Merlin about giant or mixed clan babies, but she is being so stubborn and won't listen. Can you send her back to Bartra for a different assignment, there are plenty of other things he can have her do to still help."

Meliodas understood his concern and reasoned that he would have felt the same way with Elizabeth. The dragon sin responded, "Okay, Howzer. I will talk to her. As her captain, I want her to be healthy too and get the clear from Merlin. By the way, would you be able to help on our day off Thursday to collect minerals with us for the prenatal vitamins? We could use all the help we could get that day separating into teams to find as much as possible in one day.""Thanks, Meliodas, and of course I will help. I will see you then.", said Howzer as he started to work building alongside the others though glancing over at Meliodas as he talked to Diane.

"Diane, can you come here please?", said Meliodas with authority to which she chimed an enthusiastic 'yes, Captain'. "I have decided I am taking you off duty from this station and am sending you to the castle with Howzer to be restationed by King Bartra to lighter work."

"What? You can't be serious, Captain! You can't separate me from the team!", said Diane who was beyond peeved right now. To which Meliodas responded, "I am serious, and you will still be with a team member. I bet Bartra will have you help Elizabeth with her administrative job in his library." Diane cried, "But... but... that's boring and I am way stronger than all of you anyways! I can help get the most done here! These people need help and I want to be here with King."

"Sorry Diane.", said Meliodas then he yelled to the group so everyone was aware, "Diane and Howzer are returning to the castle for her to be restationed for another duty. Howzer will return to help us after escorting her to the castle." The Holy Knight walked by Diane's side with a smile on his face but her face visibly was not enjoying his company at the moment. Everyone nodded and moved on with their work, except King who went up to the Captain and demanded an answer. "Hey, why'd you do that Captain? Diane was fine where she was.. And you know.. I could have escorted her instead of Howzer. Pfttt..."

Meliodas rebutted, "King, it is none of your business, please return to work." King felt agitated that the captain gave such a short and vague answer. He felt like there was something going on with Diane behind his back between her being sick, Howzer acting weird with her, and now her being reassigned onto a different duty away from their group which had never happened before. He also could not read her aura anymore, a skill he was improving on as he started to mature as a fairy over the last month. King spit at the ground and muttered under his breath, "I'll find out what it is... even if no one wants to tell me."