#plus lmao he's cottoned onto the fact something's wrong w/ his understanding of eli's situation even if he doesn't want to acknowledge it )

[ragesin]

❝ it’ll be all right because we’re together. ❞ ( genshin verse )

► UNPROMPTED

         It's tranquil, peaceful. Grounded senses laid open to the world around him — the slight breezy currents fluttering against his skin, sweeping through his hair and clothes. Rustling of the undergrowth and leaves. The hints of wood, grass, a light graze of floral intermingled with scent of the bubbling creek. The air was almost disgustingly fresh, filled to the brim with a cloying sweetness that should rot teeth. Everything's clear in his mind, from the nighttime sounds of the sleeping forest they resided beside to the waves of ambient energy flowing free all around.

         Soft even breaths, the faint, slowing rate of a single heart beating echoing against eardrums. Hallmarks of a losing fight against the pull to the realm of sleep. It's a wordless melody interrupted by a drowsy yawn fruitlessly half stifled, a hand faltering in its rhythmic movements, confirming the state of his adventuring companion.

         Eyes opened, half hidden between the tanned cheek smooshed into a folded arm and a mess of flaxen bangs, piercing in the low light of the flickering campfire as they blinked up in silent question. A reassuring curve of the lips framed by silver strands, luminescent under the glow of the moon, was given in return to nothing asked. Emerald hues blinked back at cerulean, unmistakably smitten soft. Those dainty fingers of hers resume combing through his wild hair while he's occupied with recovering from the smile ( how something that simple still made hearts skip a beat was beyond him ), scraping his scalp with firm but tender strokes as pleasant shivers danced up and down his spine, and wow. It never ceased to amaze how Elizabeth wielded a knack for that, making nerves buckle under the weighty force of satisfied bliss bearing down on them and forcing tension wound in muscles to dissipate. Subtle warmth enveloped him in a soothing embrace. Safe, not yet like the cresting sun peaking at blistering light. He's a boneless wreck. The tide of lethargy pulled at him with laughable ease with her assistance. Tingling content weighed heavily upon hooded lids, deep set rumble vibrating in his chest. He hoped it would never cease... Hell, as if. Like all good things it did end sooner rather than later.

❝ it’ll be all right because we’re together. ❞

         As her hand slipped from gold locks, that sigh parted her lips as she drifted off with that endearing smile in place, feather light syllables wrapped in her refreshing touch, spaces between heartfelt and overflowing with care so inexplicably Elizabeth. It'd make anyone bearing some semblance of a soul melt at the sincerity packed away the words thoughtlessly, freely given away. It could end the wars if men knew how to look at it.

         A feeling emerged from the yawning emptiness situated in the hollow caverns of his chest. It's like when he was a fledgling, transfixed in odd fascination as fissures crawled along the wall after it weathered a hit, foundation shifting and crumbling, a web of deep cracks scarring the surface. It's the same now. Detached, Meliodas observed as the same happened inside of him.

         She's right. They're together. Hearts ached, jagged and wretched, stiffening relaxed muscles to a paralyzing and stringent degree. That's the problem, isn't it ?

         Illusion of normalcy splintered, fragmented. A heaviness settled into the pit of his stomach. It twisted, writhed like a den of hissing vipers, poison seeping into blood vessels. The horror stared back through the lucent haze of moonlight with invisible unblinking eyes, looming, consuming, cutting through the dark, all gnashing teeth grinding bones.

         ( i love you, it growls sickeningly soft from the depths of his cursed soul. i love you, elizabeth. forever and always )

         It'll be alright — a repeated falsehood without end the demon told himself every time, moment to moment, desperately willing it to be true so that one day perhaps he could lose himself within the lie and believe it. One spoken with such maddening intensity that for a brief window of time even he'd forgot the woes latent and ripe with unseen tragedy entwined between them.

         Her lingering words of comfort served as both the sweetest knife and the most horrific pleasure. Dulled blade sawing through dried blood and digging into worn, perfect flesh; a reminder he / she / they were alive, bound by their precious connection and shackles. An age-old agonizing cathedral of constant wounds, comprised of festering gore that never fully closed, pried open just a little more each time it began to heal. He always let her: tear him apart, break him to pieces, and stitch him back together good as new  ( because that's what she's always been good at, fixing, while his world encompassed little aside from violence, atrocities, and destruction ). They could do this song and dance together for eternity. He deserved it, Meliodas supposed. For selfishly holding on to what's his his HIS with a vice grip until they both bleed out, rivulets dripping from the punctures beneath his nails, a sea of crimson blooming beneath each flourishing step taken. His memories, his promise guided his quest, devotion cruel enough to push his soul to move forward and fulfill it no matter how he stumbled. The man's but a living corpse daring to thread fingers with hers, a corruption burying himself flush against her smooth neck and deliriously intoxicating scent, begging through perforated lungs filled with stagnant air and iron painted lips for it all to end / for more please give him more / for her to love him despite wary suspicion of falsified emotion the curse instilled into her soul each repetition.

         He wanted to tear out his hair until scarlet flowed and let the tears well up. To rage out against the injustices that befall her time and again, doomed the second they met. To scream as hearts squeeze and squeeze so tight he's certain they're going to burst.

         Meliodas remained an image of chilling stillness, curled upon the bed of grass, temple pressed into the crook of an arm with soundless breathing wavering every so often. He didn't know how long he stayed like that, resting like the dead.

         When was the last instance time truly imposed impassable consequences outside of the bounds of a three day grace ?

         It's a simple motion when he finally moved, the moon having crossed some distance in the blanket of stars above. Wordlessly, he reached to hold her sleep-slackened hand. Calloused fingertips pressed, traced, caressed lines crisscrossed along her palm. Some strokes were firm, as though seeking to engrave his memory upon her flesh via mindless shapes. Others ghosted a fleeting imprint of hopeless longing, phantom touches questioning whether he'd ever been present at all. The intimate brushes of skin did not betray the tremors roiling beneath the surface.

         Love. The core of every action. It's love that coaxed his fortified guard to statter to dust and expose his vulnerabilities. Love made him look at her with reverence and fondness in equal strokes despite himself all those years ago. Love's what loosened his sinful tongue to sing her name like a prayer and present himself at her altar, offering flesh while pleading forgiveness. Love allowed the memories and centuries of pain caked onto his skin to be washed away into sweet scintillating oblivion.

         They're together. Who cared if Meliodas already knew what awaited him at the end of their written path, the steep cliff she unfailingly pushed him down with each loss tearing the earth and sky out from underneath his shaky feet ?  It was of no import that whenever he awakened from this sweet dream the cold reality would unerringly slam him with a force thrice harder for his fool damned indulgence and forgetting to brace himself. She couldn't ever be allowed to know this fate.

         Gaze cut to the new presence in their midst, assessing the form standing over him, green clashing against gold. A grin bloomed to life, filled with beaming mirth he couldn't really bring himself to muster inside and stretched across his face from ear to ear. His free hand shifted, index finger raised to his lips, a reticent and wholly unnecessary gesture to keep quiet. The narrowed eye roll from the adeptus was a well deserved one.

         The demon and yaksha made an unlikely duo, a companionship unexpected  ( and close. are they close ?  something in his chest nudges in the direction of the affirmative )  after coming to these lands and yet it's welcomed all the same. He really really liked the guy, harsh and biting as his demeanor may outwardly seem. Weirdly enough, their conflicting personalities meshed better than he initially presumed might ever happen upon their first encounter. In any case, the demon's glad someone else had the strength and capability to protect Elizabeth in areas he may falter.

         Retracting his hand from Elizabeth's, Meliodas languidly propped himself up despite the numbing exhaustion and yawned, using it to make even more of a tangled mess of his hair as he ran it through the mused locks, dislodging accumulated small blades of green. As he did, Xiao took a seat next to Elizabeth on her other side, taking up the mantle of guard duty for the remainder of the night.

         A part of him — a dark wisp curled in a dark corner of his mind — demanded this emptying vessel of his to reach right out and close his hands around that slim, delicate throat. An animosity misplaced but it still screeched, begging to throttle the other man, dig in powerful claws, crush the windpipe and reduce pristine snowy skin to red pulp. This intruder, you invader, it snarled, an ugly blackness, you don't belong. But, the part in control mused, wasn't that Meliodas ?  Is he himself not the foreign entity in this equation ?  The odd piece out not meant to fit into the picture ?  He could see it. Crystal clear in the depth of the ardor pooled in her blue irises when set upon Xiao. The adeptus had known this Elizabeth far longer than he. It burned obvious and bright in the ease with which he slotted himself to her side — like it was where Xiao belonged.

         It's that final thought that spurred his body to stand up, a breathless heave chasing his step and perfectly concealed irritation / affection bittersweet on the tongue. Unsaid exchange passed between the two men, drops slipping through the tenuous cracks of the taciturn lull before Meliodas ignored the dagger of his own design slipped between his ribs that chafed and maimed and turned on his heel, walking off into the dead of night away from the light of his life and the pangs of envious rancor / painstaking relief toward his friend. They'll be fine until morning. He'll return to camp when the sun greeted a new day over the horizon. Elizabeth would not even notice his absence.

         ( wrong. something is wrong wrong wrong. everything is fine. this is right. she can't be elizabeth. she's been alive too long. your elizabeth. not your elizabeth. your hearts sing a lie when you touch. it's the only truth that matters in this damn world )

         It'll be alright. They're together. Whether they wished for it or not.

@triskeleyes