Past Hidden by a Broken Smile (Being Edited)

Chapter Eleven: Coffee Break

"Ya know, I'm kind of suprised you still drink your coffee so sweet after how much your tastes have changed in every other area, Meliodas."

The blond gave a lopsided smile at his brother over the observation, his voice as nonchalant and cheery as ever in his response.

"Yeah, I still remember when you would give me sips of yours as a kid. Think that's why it stuck with me, reminded me of you; ya know? Do you still take it that way too? Good to know since I'm making the cups now."

"Nah I usually take it black. I don't have the sweet-tooth I used to anymore."

"Ah, like the coffee as bitter as your food, huh?"

"Hey mister, I'm not the one that gave everyone food poisoning FIVE times in a row!"

"Yeah but you were the one that taught me how to cook so badly!"

The two laughed over the back and forth banter before settling down with the two cups ready and hot. It was a nice moment of silence as they each had a feeling of nostalgia overcome them in this moment. Not for any particular reason, just a general sense perhaps caused by being in each other's presence again in such good spirits.

The air seemed lighter then any other moment since they'd seen each other in their reunion. After having the weight of guilt lifted- even if replaced by new guilt for different reasons- it felt like it made things easier for Zeldris. Like he could talk to Meliodas without as much.... withdrawal.

The ravenette looked over at his younger brother sipping on the cup of coffee to try to gauge if he felt the same way in this moment, only to have another thought; how did Meliodas not like bitter coffee, but easily handle the harsh taste of alcohol even better than the adult himself?

Zeldris went to ask, but as soon as he set his cup down and opened his mouth a clank sounded and he found his cup's contents spilling all over the table.

"Ah dammit. Here, I'll clean this up."

"Nah it's cool, I'll go get something to dry it."

The blond stood up and went over behind the counter again to find something, while Zeldris mentally cursed his own clumsiness.

Why the hell did I have to spill my coffee when we were finally having a nice moment without any awkwardness on my part? Dammit! Well, at least my coffee doesn't have any sugar, won't be sticky that way.

"Okay! I'm back with something to clean this up. Ran out of fresh napkins but I have these I was using earlier to write orders on. Should be enough to handle the spill."

Zeldris was curious as to how a tavern could completely run out of napkins, but he was more relieved that the mess would be cleaned before it spread to the floor like it was attempting.

"Thanks for the help Mel, sorry for being an idiot and not checking where the cup was."

He laughed sheepishly while his sibling didn't seem to mind at all, just shrugging it off before beginning to throw away the soaked paper he used to wipe up the liquid.

It was about two pieces in the garbage later that Zeldris actually noticed the writing on it. It looked.. choppy; and not in a snooty 'this isn't fancy so it's unreadable' kind of way, but in a 'this is shaky and barely legible' way.

But it barely took a moment for the ravenette to understand why.

Meliodas had always struggled with writing when he was little. For some reason, he couldn't hold the pen right. Esta tried the right hand and Zeldris tried with the left since those were their specialties, but no matter what they did the poor boy's writing would shake and wobble horribly. They had even checked with the town healer to make sure there wasn't something wrong with the blond's wrist that caused such struggle for him. Their answer was simply that their younger brother continued needing help learning proper format and that was all. But... it wasn't long after that check up that Meliodas's eighth birthday came along....

He never learned how to write properly? Esta said after leaving he was in a neighboring town for awhile, surely they would've noticed and taught him right? I mean, surely he wasn't just on his own.. right? He wasn't.... alone, was he? Was he... taken care of?

"Hey... Meli?"

"Yeah Zeldris? What's up?"

The boy had finished cleaning up now and was back in his chair across from his brother, giving said sibling an inquisitive look at the odd tone accompanying the question.

"Were you... When you...."

He trailed off, unsure of how to ask this.

"When you were in that town without Esta and me, did you... have someone? Did you have anyone taking care of you? You weren't... on your own, were you?"

Meliodas's eyes darkened for a moment, not in anger it seemed- at least not at Zeldris since he was looking at the table- but in... a moment of being lost. Lost in the past triggered by a question that brought up things he didn't seem to want to think about. And, well... that was enough to answer things for Zeldris.

He wanted desperately to ask more questions as his stomach plummeted at knowing his little brother, his sweet, niave, eight year old little brother, was all alone for TWO YEARS... Yet he kept his mouth shut. At least, until he was absolutely sure he could keep himself from asking futher. This wasn't the right moment, Zeldris didn't want to ruin things. He couldn't ruin things when everything was finally going smoothly. So, he decided to talk about what had made him think about it in the first place.

"Do you remember when you were little and Esta and I would help you with your writing? You'd always make it a game where you'd start writing a sentence and we'd have to try to finish it. I remember it was a lot of fun even though writing was still hard for you. Would you like to try to do something like that again? I just thought it might be a fun pass time. And also help you with that terrible writing of yours."

He added the last part as a tease, even though he really did want to help with the boy's writing. His heart was pounding with anxiety in every beat as he waited a split second for Meliodas's reply. He didn't want to make things worse.. not now.

"Hey! I'll have you know my writing is perfectly legible. It's just only legible to me, which is a perfect strategy so no one else steals my recipes."

The blond went on like normal. As if he hadn't just had a look of horrible pain, fear, anger, and bitterness on his face. And as concerning as Zeldris found that, he was also very relieved that his brother wasn't mad. That he hadn't just messed up everything they had started to build in one stupid question.

"Please, if anyone steals your recipes the actual cooking will take them out anyway."

The blond pouted playfully as he went behind the counter and pulled out some paper.

"Fine then! The game shall begin! But, everytime you get it wrong you have to eat a bite of something I cook, deal?"

Zeldris shuttered at the thought, even though he knew that this was Meliodas's way of excepting help with his writing. So, begrudgingly, the ravenette agreed.

"Fine, just try not to poison me okay?"

A evil smirk covered the blonds face as the game begun, all the while a pit formed in Zeldris's stomach with one thought in mind as he forced all others to disperse for now until he could collect them later.

The things I do for my little brother.. I better not lose.

Okay, this sucks. The idea was a wonderful suggestion! I just don't think I did well on the follow through. I'm so sorry! I tried my best and haven't read the other chapters in a while so it was hard to write without the flow of things. This was also completely by scratch and over a few months. So once again, I'm sorry and I'll work hard to make the next one better!