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His younger brother was late.
Meliodas sat at a table in his empty tavern, a tankard of Vanya Ale in his hand. The rest of the Seven Deadly Sins were happy to leave the Boar Hat for the evening, fully understanding the privacy needed. Elizabeth decided to spend the night in the castle and fully catch up with her sisters; the troublesome trio had their own celebrations in an inn in Liones. Everything was arranged for the two brothers to be alone together and have a drink, as long as Zeldris showed up.
Staring into the amber liquid within the mug in his hand, Meliodas thought back to the last drink he had with Zeldris.
As the leader of the Ten Commandments, the ruthless demon that Meliodas had once been often acted cold towards his little brother. The brothers only occasionally socially interacted, usually when hunting dragons or humans. Not long before Meliodas met Elizabeth, the two demon princes had destroyed a human village together, burning the houses down with their Hellblaze. Goddesses had often used the village as a stopping point before and after raiding demon territory, so it had to go. The villagers were mercilessly slaughtered, and their charred corpses littered the ground like fallen leaves in autumn.
They took a couple of barrels of ale as spoils from their successful massacre, found relatively undamaged from a burnt down building - the village pub. A close hill had an unbroken view over the smouldering remains, which the brothers flew to and used to signify their reign of terror over the nights of Britannia.
The gibbous moon in the starry sky illuminated their celebration, only partially obscured by the lingering smoke. Meliodas, in his spotless white coat, wasted no time in starting to gulp down his barrel while Zeldris surveyed their handiwork and left his barrel of ale on the ground.
"Brother," Zeldris called out, "When you're not busy with all your duties to the clan and Father, could we do something like this again?"
Meliodas paused drinking and put down his ale, struggling to keep his expressions neutral. Ever since he started meeting up with the goddess Elizabeth, he had found it increasingly difficult to maintain his uncaring facade. Most of the time, all the other demons feared him and barely looked at him, not wanting to displeasure the eldest prince and face his wrath. However, Zeldris was different towards him. Zeldris was close to him in age, only a few decades younger, and he had always looked after his younger brother. However, now that Elizabeth had made him understand that there were more emotions than indifference, Meliodas had come to realise that he genuinely cared about his brother.
And now his brother was asking to spend time with him! The question almost made Meliodas lose the disguise that he wore over his heart to maintain the unchanging emotionless view every other person had of him. He didn't even dare turn his head, in case he didn't manage to keep his expression blank, and finally responded to Zeldris.
"If I have time, we can go dragon hunting on your next birthday."
They both finished off their ale without uttering another word. They were enemies by Zeldris' next birthday.
Meliodas blinked and finished staring past the mirror-like surface of his drink, shaking his head to clear any lingering memories. His reflection stared back at him, and he noticed the downcast look on his face - he truly regretted the absence of a brotherly bond between Zeldris and himself. The way he had once treated his brother was something that had come to weigh on his hearts as the years passed. He took a long, refreshing gulp and savoured the fruity flavour as it slithered down his throat. Finishing his mouthful, he looked down with disappointment at the empty cup, the fourth bottle he'd drained while waiting for Zeldris to walk through that door. The anticipation of sitting down with his brother for the first time in millennia was driving him mad; he'd just poured himself a drink to take his mind off of it.
Meliodas made his way over to the counter; his cup needed refilling again. He was getting nervous about seeing Zel again, as the time dragged on and his brother was being later and later, the worse it was getting. His hearts were pounding in his throat as he reached under the counter for another bottle. Why was his brother taking so long? He felt so jumpy that he wasn't thinking straight and managed to bang his head on the countertop as he stood back up with the bottle in his hand. He instinctively put his empty hand on the sore spot and huffed. That certainly distracted him from his anxiety.
It also distracted him from his brother's magical signature as Zeldris flew towards the tavern and landed outside the door.
Zeldris was also nervous, with butterflies dancing around his stomach. He had been pacing around the room he was staying in, a small inn in the middle of nowhere, wanting to see his older brother, yet also dreading it.
Gelda had tried to smother his nerves, yet none of the calming talks they had had had managed to out his mind to rest. She had left in the late afternoon as she had organised some of her own plans for the evening. Guila and Jericho were celebrating, and Gelda started forming a firm friendship with the two humans.
Zeldris's mind was all over the place as he had killed time before meeting up with his older brother at the arranged time and place. Each second seemed to stretch and last for hours, yet, at other times, minutes seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Due to this distorted view of time, Zeldris didn't even notice the sky darkening outside as the sun approached the horizon.
It was only once the flickering light of a candle passed outside his window did he truly realise how late it had gotten. As a demon, he could see much the same at night as in the day.
And now he was late.
Pushing aside his nerves, he left the inn, spread his wings, and took off towards his brother's tavern. It was not very far away, just a few miles, and the ground blurred underneath his for the short time he was in the air.
The tavern appeared, and he dropped to the ground, landing outside the door. Zeldris raised his hand to push open the door and hesitated. He could sense Meliodas inside. If he wanted to abandon this meetup, now was the time to do so.
No! Meliodas was his older brother, and he looked up to him. And if he ran away from this, Gelda wouldn't be happy.
Gathering all his courage, Zeldris pushed the door open to reveal the bar within.
Meliodas was looking down at his tankard on the countertop as he poured his fifth cupful of ale for that evening when the door to his tavern opened. He automatically extended his senses and found Zeldris's magical signature, and looked up just to see his little brother walk across the tavern's threshold.
"Yo, Zel! Thanks for coming. What can I get for you?"
Zeldris looked away from his older brother, before meeting Meliodas' happy green eyes.
"Whatever you recommend. Humans have a knack for making good alcohol. No matter what you give me, it's better than what's on offer in the demon realm."
"You're not wrong about that."
Meliodas got a bottle of ale off the shelf and filled a clean tankard before bringing both his and his brother's drinks to a table.
"Here," Meliodas said, putting the almost-overflowing drink down, "I've poured you my favourite, Vanya Ale."
Zeldris sat down by his drink, then picked it up and took a few large gulps, a sigh escaping from his mouth once he'd swallowed the amber liquid. "That's a really good drink."
Meliodas copied, tipping back half of his drink in one go from the neighbouring stool. A gentle silence fell between the brothers, neither of them sure what to say next.
"I'm sorry."
Meliodas was the first to break the silence with an apology to his brother. Those two little words had caused Zeldris to freeze before slowly lifting his head to look into his older brother's concerned eyes.
"I'm sorry for causing you so much pain by leaving you. I don't regret leaving the demon race, but I do regret leaving you."
"I hated you so much for abandoning me. I... I just felt so alone. Like there was no one I could be myself around. I had to keep my walls up all the time. Everyone saw me as the Prince, not as a person." Once the words had started pouring out of Zeldris' mouth, nothing could stop them.
"The only person that I could be open with was Gelda, but I could barely see her. Suddenly, everything fell to me. Training the troops. Protecting our clan. Fighting the war. Everyone was expecting me to be perfect and able to do everything at once, and I felt like I was the one holding everything together. It was almost impossible to sneak out to see Gelda, yet she was who I needed. Since I could not rely on you.
"Since I was supposed to hate you."
Zeldris finally stopped as he had run out of air. Tears were streaming down his face as he laid bare his emotions, his soul, before his brother he once lost.
For a second, Meliodas was unsure what to do. They'd never talked like this before. But then, when they were last truly brothers, they'd never fought each other to the death or spent 3000 years on opposing sides.
Meliodas gently stood up and crossed the couple of steps that separated them and enveloped his brother in a hug. They hadn't ever hugged before either.
But right now, it felt necessary.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. But I promise you, I will be from now onwards. I won't abandon you again."
At those few words, Zeldris gripped onto Meliodas with all his strength and didn't want to let go.
He had his older brother back again. And he didn't feel so lonely anymore.