Chapter Text
"Okay, I hear you. I get it. But I still want you to consider, maybe I just don't want to," Meliodas begged. He loved Elizabeth. Truly, he did, with all his hearts and cold, black soul. He'd cross oceans and move mountains for her. He'd easily abandoned everything he'd ever known to fight by her side. But this?
This was unreasonable.
She laughed, a sound like wind through chimes. "I think you're overreacting a little," she teased lightheartedly. "It's just meeting some new people. You're telling me the former leader of the Ten Commandments is scared of a little social interaction?"
He looked his girlfriend, his love, the light of his life in the eyes. "Yes. Yes he is."
She snorted and laughed again, covering her mouth with one hand. "Fine, then. You're still going to do it, but I'll be right there the whole time. Promise," she acquiesced, but Meliodas shook his head. "You have to do the talking, I don't know what to say. Hey, sorry about all those times I tried to kill you, can we be friends now? Do you know how that sounds, Elizabeth? It sounds like a trap. I'd think it was a trap if someone said that to me."
Elizabeth just rolled her eyes. "You have a point. Fine, I'll do all the talking and the hard parts, and you can just stand there and be my trophy boytoy, how's that?" Meliodas shrugged. "That sounds fantastic, actually. I'm all for being your boytoy."
Elizabeth leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek, and smiled at the blush that coated his face. He still wasn't used to the whole physical affection thing, coming from a place where the closest he'd come to touching another person was hitting them. For whatever reason, Elizabeth had found this absolutely unacceptable, and insisted on showering him with touch and pure adoration for as long as she could get away with.
He really, really didn't mind.
That, among other reasons, was why he was letting her do this. Introduce him to her friends. Her allies. The really important ones that she needed to win the war. The ones Meliodas had been trying to kill for the better part of his 357 years of life. He meant it when he begged her to do all the talking- the vulnerability thing was also very new to him, and this was so far outside that comfort zone that it fell off the map that lead him back.
She disappeared into the tree cover, and Meliodas strained to keep track of her presence in the forest. Elizabeth had a very distinctive magical signature, but the forest was teeming with so much life and interfering magic that it was hard to keep everything separate. It was so loud, too, compared to the Demon realm.
(sometimes, it got too loud for him to think or move or breathe. Elizabeth always found him, no matter where he hid to wait out the crushing guilt, and uncurled his nails from his skin and held him until it passed. he'd tell her he couldn't do it, that he was horrible for leaving Zel to do everything by himself and he had to go back but Chandler and his father and his brother were going to be so angry and he's sorry that he wasn't strong enough, and she would hold him and say that it wasn't his fault, he'd tried his best, and she would sooner cut off her own wings than let him go back to that hellhole. even when he couldn't catch his breath long enough to speak or knotted his hands in his hair and pulled as hard as he could, she was there with her soothing words and soft hands and a magic touch that brought him back from the brink of insanity time and time again. he never could have escaped without her. so what if she wanted to tell her friends he was there? he'd survived worse.)
He could just barely hear voices from beyond the treeline, but he jumped when one of them started yelling. He still couldn't make out what was being said, but he could guess that one was the Fairy King- the fae had a strange accent that made their Common hard for him to understand. "I told you not to freak out," he heard Elizabeth hiss, and gods, he wanted to curl up and die. He was causing problems. Even worse, he was causing problems for Elizabeth.
He pushed his dull thumb nail into his hand (Elizabeth made him cut his nails the first time she saw him do it. He didn't know if he was grateful for it or not yet), and crossed his arms. The familiar call of darkness sang under his skin, but he pushed back the urge to bury the mess of emotion in his head and replace it with cold, sharp reason. He might not understand much about Elizabeth's side of the world, but the concept of addiction was universal. It was a habit he needed to kick, so he would.
Elizabeth pushed back the branches and waved for him to join them, only hesitating for a moment when she saw the pink half-moons in his skin and his shoulders around his ears. Combing one hand through his hair, she kissed his temple and rested her forehead against his. "Everything's okay," she murmured. "You're safe here, love, I promise." He leaned into her touch, swallowing the purr rising through his chest. "I know," he rasped, "I'm fine." Elizabeth just hummed in response and took his hand anyway.
Meliodas gladly let her lead the way, fighting the urge to hide behind her when the pair came into view. He wasn't a child, he could handle this. The Fairy King regarded him with a cold, calculating gaze, and the Giant King wouldn't even look at him. Now, he didn't think Elizabeth was lying, per se, but he did think she may have exaggerated a little to make him feel better.
Elizabeth broke the tense silence with a shaky smile. "I mean, this is him. Meliodas is with us now," she announced with a false confidence Meliodas knew all too well. She was as anxious as he was about this, he realized dimly.
Trying to mitigate his own fears? Impossible. Making Elizabeth feel better? He was an expert.
"Hi," he said shortly. "I'm the boytoy."
The look of cold apathy on the Fairy King's face quickly morphed into one of absolute bewilderment, and the Giant king was equally baffled. Elizabeth had to sit down because she was laughing too hard. "Oh my gods," she wheezed, "Mel- I wasn't serious-" He couldn't help but crack a grin of his own as Elizabeth struggled to regain her composure, slipping into hysterics every time she managed to take a deep breath.
The Fairy King finally smiled, and relief flooded through Meliodas' veins. He walked across the short space and extended a willowy hand. "I must say," he drawled, "you're a lot less intimidating when you introduce yourself like that." He glanced back over to Elizabeth, who had finally recovered enough poise to stand, but was visibly trying to stifle another laughing attack. "I'm Gloxinia." Meliodas shook his hand, still smiling. "Nice to finally meet you properly."
The Giant king nodded, a wry grin having crept onto his face. "Drole. Pleased to meet you, boytoy," he remarked sarcastically. "The pleasure is mine," Meliodas cracked back, and Elizabeth groaned at the double entente that flew straight over the other two's heads. She pulled him back into her chest and buried her face in his hair. "You are a menace," she laughed, voice muffled. Meliodas leaned back into her, holding the hands wrapped around his waist. "I know," he sang quietly, "that's why you keep me around. I make things interesting."
He couldn't remember what he'd been so worried about.