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Gleeful chattering rung throughout the bar. The entire kingdom was celebrating the defeat of the Demon King by getting boozing, yet again. The bar was packed with citizens and holy knights alike, so the sins had their hands full.
Slader thought it was pretty unfair. The sins shouldn’t have to be working when they had just lost a teammate. They should be mourning. That’s all he wanted to do when he lost the Roars of Dawn, at least.
“Escanor was a good lad,” claimed Baltra as he slung an arm around Slader’s broad shoulders. He was clearly drunk, “It’s such a shame we had to lose him. He was the bravest human I’ve ever met.” The Holy Knight gave a pitiful sigh in response. He didn’t want the king to lament the loss of the sin too much, so he decided to change the topic,
“Your highness, do you think you’ve had enough to drink?” Slader didn’t want to command the king, however he wanted to stop him from getting into trouble. Liones’ ruler tumbling through the street intoxicated wouldn’t give the kingdom a very powerful image, after all,
“Don’t worry my boy, I’m not planning to drink anymore,” The king assured him, “My main reason for being here is to watch my people celebrate.” Seeing his follower’s large smiles and cheerful gazes made the ruler feel content. And if Bartra was happy, Slader was too.
“This wouldn’t be happening if it wasn’t for The Seven Deadly Sins. The whole of Britannia owes them their gratitude,” Slader responded as he glanced into his stein, rocking it back and fourth and watching the liquid swish around inside, “It makes me feel kind of bad- not even a year ago we were treating them like traitors. To think they’d do something so kind for a country that turned their backs on them,”
The king chuckled, before smiling warmly at him. There was a moment of pure silence between them both, the conversations of others surrounding them filling the space between them, before Bartra spoke up,
“Why do you insist on wearing that mask, Slader?” He asked, “You’re not working right now, do you not wish to take it off?”
Slader traced the rim of the piece of metal, contemplating whether to do it or not.
“Ah why not, it’s a special occasion after all,” Slader exclaimed, pulling it away from his head and revealing his handsome face. Maybe I’ll pull a new boyfriend...
The night stretched on, yet the bar didn’t seem to get any emptier. Slader could feel the alcohol starting to take its toll on him, but he wasn’t too bothered by it. The king was currently occupied by some other people- Margaret, Veronica, Griamore, Gilthunder and Howzer. Slader wasn’t too bothered by it as the king seemed to be having fun, however he did feel out of place on his own. He decided to order another drink. He didn’t intend to get shitfaced- he needed to make sure the King got home safely. But a few more couldn’t hurt him.
Time seemed to be moving more and more slowly for Slader. He was tapping his fingers on the table, bouncing his leg. Anything to fill the gap,
“One large Vanya Ale for my favourite holy knight, Slader,” a voice exclaimed. Slader lifted his head up and saw the goat’s sin donning the Boar Hat’s uniform striking a peace sign before placing the stein on the table and promptly taking his empty stein away, “This one’s on the house, I’ve been dying to talk to you!”
Slader was taken back by the way he formed his words. Is he... expressive? The thought that something had warmed the sin’s cold, dead heart was taking a while for him to process. The pair stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity,
“Well this is tense...” Gowther rubbed the back of his neck and gave an awkward chuckle, “Guess I have to fill you in on a few things,”
There was a brief silence, before Slader managed to gingerly stumble something out of his mouth,
“You... you feel?” It was less of a question, and more of a statement. Slader needed to confirm with himself that he was really seeing this. Lots of odd scenarios were running through his head. Was his alcohol spiked? Is he hallucinating? Does he really, genuinely feel?
“I got my heart back!” The sin exclaimed with a bright grin, pumping his fist in the air, “And I really wanted to talk to you, and say thank you!” The boy looked at the ground, a warm smile tracing the formerly expressionless face of his, “You’ve been one of the most supportive people to me. You helped me through many of my little escapades and taught me many things. Now I am able to genuinely appreciate all that you’ve done for me, so thank you,”
Slader took a while to take it all in, before standing up with a large grin and placing his hand on the smaller boy’s head,
“I never thought I’d see the day you smile, Gowther,” he proceeded to rub his hand vigorously through the sin’s smooth pink locks, creating a ruffled mess, “There’s no need to thank me, darling. I’m proud of you,”
Slader sat back down, and he expected the doll to continue on with his job, however he didn’t. He just stood motionless for a few seconds and stared at Slader, looking like he intended to say something, until he eventually cracked. Tears streamed down his face. Once again, Slader was in awe. He wouldn’t have even considered the possibility of Gowther crying an hour ago. He ushered Gowther to sit down with him and wrapped his arm around the grieving boy, letting him sob into his chest while he stroked his back. If Slader wore a shirt, it’d most certainly be damp from tears. It was a shock to his system, seeing the boy he only knew to be stoic showing such a display of emotion. His emotions were like a tide that had suddenly swept him up, and the only thing he had to keep him afloat was Slader. He just wanted to wrap the crying boy up in blankets and give him cuddles. The goat sin continued to weep for a little while in the comfort of Slader’s arms, before eventually speaking up, his head still nestled into the knight’s wide chest,
“I-I’m sorry,” he stumbled out through his tears, “You shouldn’t have to....” his sentence was interrupted by a series sharp breaths and sobs,
“Come on now, darling. There’s nothing to apologise for,” Slader cooed, continuing to comfort the sin through this difficult time, “You’ve been through a lot these past few days. It’s only natural to want to vent these feelings onto somebody else,”
“It is?” Gowther replied, lifting his head off Slader’s chest and looking into his brown eyes. Slader chuckled,
“Of course it is. Keeping your feelings bottled up will only hurt you more. You’ve got to release all of those pent up feelings in order to feel better,”
Gowther paused for a second, like he was processing this information, before chuckling and wiping his tears on his arm,
“I guess I still have a lot to learn about feeling things,” he smiled sadly, and the Holy Knight have him a genuine smile in return.
The pair sat in silence again, only broken by Gowther’s occasional sniffling. Neither of them minded the silence.
When the long silence seemed to drag into an eternity, the sin pulled himself away from the knight, picking up the stein that he had dropped in his outburst,
“I need to do my job,” he confirmed, pairing the sentence with a deflated chuckle, before once again wiping his tears on his forearm “The bar is at more than full capacity, we need all hands on deck,”
“Are you sure, darling? You’ve gotten yourself in quite a tizz,” Slader wanted to hug the boy even more and make him feel loved. He was currently viewing the sin in the same light as a distressed child, wanting to cuddle him and make him feel ok, “I can take over if you’d like- I think I’d look quite glamorous in that uniform, actually,”
This comment seemed to boost Gowther’s mood, as he began to laugh. That smile was once again gracing his features and there wasn’t a single trace of his outburst left on his face (except from his puffy, red eyes). Perhaps he was feeling better now.
“I’ll be ok, but thank you for offering,” the sin beamed, “Thank you for your help today, Slader. I’m not sure what you did, but it lifted my spirits! I feel invincible!” It must’ve been Gowther’s first time experiencing the afterglow of offloading pent-up feelings, because he felt positively powerful,
“There’s no need to thank me,” Slader affirmed, “I’m glad I could help you,”
“I hope I’ll see you around sometime! Maybe just you and I could get a drink? I mean, I can’t drink but I guess you could and I’ll watch and we’ll laugh!” Gowther stumbled his words out due to being suddenly hyperactive from this newfound source of energy, “How about next weekend? Only if that’s ok with you, though!”
Slader chuckled at the sin’s sudden excitability, “It’s a date,”
“Cool!” Gowther relied, striking a thumbs up with the biggest, most child like smile Slader had ever seen, “See you next weekend!”
Slader wanted to say goodbye, he really did. But the boy suddenly turned around and darted into the kitchen, strongly motivated to continue his job.
Slader grinned, looking down at the table. He never thought he’d ever see Gowther being a little ball of energy.
Although, it was a welcomed change.