Almost in Paradise

2. Jericho

The big man steps forward and you can clearly see his 8-pack in the light. Something that surely catches my eyes is that perfect big ass moustache! But then the sun behind him sets under the horizon and the man starts to shrink until the big strong man I just saw is just a small unsure guy. This must be-!

"EEESCANOR!!" Meliodas voice echoes all over the tavern and the little man walks as fast as his short legs can take him to the counter.

"It's nice to meet again, Meliodas" he says.

"Well of course." Meliodas hands over a drink to him.

They go on with their talk as I look around at the other people. I don't think there's any other protagonist here right now. Or, wait... is that Jericho over there? I walk over to her.

"Heey, mind if I sit down here?" She looks up at me.

"Yeah."

Deathly boring, as usual.
I sit down anyways.

"Soo, eh, what's your name?" I just wanna talk to her, c'mon!

With the most bitchy look ever she focuses at me again.

"Jericho." I look at her like I want more of a conversation and she rolls her eyes. "Ugh whatever, w h a t   a b o u t   y o u ?" Wow something must have happened.

"I'm Chiyo Kouki! Nice of you to ask!" Oops, too ironic? "Hey Jericho, not to be too 'onto you' or anything, but it kiiiinda looks like you've lost your man or something."

Her eye twitches a little as a reaction to my comment and then she stands up in front of me. From my perspective, she really rises like a giant (not literally), the way she closely looks down on me.

"Exactly what do you want?" I start to sweat and I'm pretty sure she can see that.

"Eh?"

She won't move at all.

"What I want? Ha... I j-just wanted a small talk..."

I don't dare to look her in the eyes. Even though she's one of the characters I like the least because she's so annoying, she can fight and is a 100 times stronger than me.
But what does it matter? I'm in a lucid dream or something, right? I can't get hurt in real life here. I take a deep breath.

"You know, I never liked you. No wonder why Ban didn't either."I smile to her face. How am I doing this??

I regret it as soon as I see her face turn red of anger. If I would've had a collar she would definitely have grabbed it, but now she just grabs my chin and pulls me up so that we stand there, face to face.

"You were me a stubborn one" she says, "how much do you know?!"

I blush for some reason. Okay I shouldn't have said that, now I just feel dumb.

"Well... e-everything?"

She gives me SLAP! in the face.

"Hey, what is up with you Jericho?!" Meliodas drags her back.

"Don't you touch me!" She shouts and pushes him away.

"You'll pay for this" she whispers in my ear as she walks by me and out of the tavern.

My stupidity messed things up, as always. Though I'm pretty surprised by something:
That slap hurt.