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Elizabeth should know better than to take anything Merlin says at face value. Really, after knowing the other woman for years—god, had it really been that long?—she should know better.
All she’d wanted was Merlin’s cookie recipe!
There was no way someone could make cookies that good without magic. And honestly, Elizabeth did have her suspicions about Merlin. However, now wasn’t the time to unpack those.
Now? She was a bit preoccupied by the summoning circle decorating her kitchen floor. Oh, and was that something coming out of it? Great. Just brilliant. Exactly what Elizabeth needed today.
If Merlin didn’t want to give up her cookie secrets she could’ve just said!
Scrabbling for a kitchen knife, she shakily pointed it towards the circle. Elizabeth wasn’t sure what a kitchen knife would do against a demon (because what else could that possibly be?) but she wasn’t going to lie down and die.
There was a flash of light, and Elizabeth’s eyes shut on reflex as she lost her grip on the knife. When she opened them, she was face to face with a blond human (human looking?) man.
He smiled. “Well, hey there!”
Elizabeth takes an unsteady step back, creating distance between them.
He stares curiously at her, with childlike wonder in his eyes. In fact, he even looked like a child. If it wasn’t for the summoning circle (how was she even going to clean that?) still on her kitchen floor, Elizabeth would’ve thought she was losing her mind.
This kid couldn’t possibly be a demon. And yet.
“Are you a demon?” she asks, and well she didn’t mean to phrase it that bluntly but before she could get anything else out he’d already answered.
“Yep. You should know! You’re the one that summoned me, afterall.”
“Not intentionally...” she frowns at him.
“Not intentionally…?” he repeats.
A heavy silence hangs in the air for a few seconds, and Elizabeth thinks well, this is it. This is how I die then.
Then, he laughs.
“Wow. Seriously?”
Elizabeth can’t help the flush that rises in her cheeks, “What do you mean by that?! I didn’t mean to summon you so can’t you just- just go back?”
The demon stares at her.
“Hmm… nope.” And while Elizabeth’s processing that, he walks over to her fridge and opens it like he lives here.
“Why not?” she asks, ignoring the fact he’s decided to make himself at home. A demon, making himself at home in her apartment. Fantastic.
“Well, for starters, I don’t want to.”
Elizabeth balks, “What.”
He shrugs.
Then, without elaborating, turns back to the fridge and takes out her carton of milk. He drinks it straight from the carton.
“I must be dreaming. T-there’s no way.” she says, half delirious. The fact that there’s a demon in her kitchen is beginning to sink in.
She blinks and in an instant he’s standing in front of her again. He pinches her forearm.
“Feel that? Still think you’re dreaming?”
Elizabeth does feel it.
What she doesn’t feel is the demon catching her as she falls back and passes out.
—
Elizabeth wakes up in her bed. What a relief. It was a dream, then. It felt so real though…
Looking over at her alarm clock, the blinking red numbers stared back at her reading 4:32P.M.
Of course, what was she thinking? How would a cookie recipe summon a demon? Merlin was certainly not what one would call ordinary but that was a stretch.
Breathing deeply and sinking back into her pillows, Elizabeth yawned. She could almost fall back asleep. But, if she did that she knew she’d just wake up in the middle of the night.
Might as well get up then. She sits up and swings her legs over the side of her bed.
That does make her wonder though, when did she even fall asleep? And she was in her pajamas too!
There was no way she’d just slept the entire day away, right? Grabbing her phone resting on her bedside table, she checked the date. 18th May.
Huh.
She remembers waking up on the morning of the 18th and then after breakfast… She went to bake. Did she never wake up at all?
Was it all a dream?
Another thought crossed her mind. A foolish, impossible thought. There was no way. Unless.
She jumped up and ran out of her room, into the living room.
The TV was on. And the demon was sitting on her sofa. He was… watching her TV.
“Oh.” she says, quietly, feeling faint.
“Hey, Elizabeth! How’d you sleep?” he doesn’t even turn away from the TV. This scene feels terribly domestic and she doesn’t like it.
One, he’s a stranger. Two, he’s a demon. Actually, in hindsight, maybe the demon thing should’ve been number one.
A thought occurs to her and she frowns, “I- how do you know my name?”
“That’s easy. It’s written on the tags of your clothes!”
Suddenly, a realisation comes over Elizabeth. In the kitchen, she was dressed in day clothes. Now, she’s in her pajamas.
He changed her clothes.
“You-“ Elizabeth squeaks, cheeks flushing bright red, “You changed my clothes? ”
The demon glances at her, and then shrugs. “Maybe.”
She was about to talk more about this—establish that changing her clothes was not on the table—but then she realised she had bigger problems. Such as the fact he was here in the first place.
“How do I make you leave?” she asks, sounding just as tired as she felt.
He glances at her again, and hums thoughtfully, “Well, to put it simply, you can’t. I don’t want to leave.”
Elizabeth sighs.
What was she going to do? She couldn’t just let this demon move into her apartment. But what else could she do? There was no way she was going to attempt fighting him now.
Elizabeth walks over to him and sits down on the sofa next to him. He eyes her carefully and she stares back, but it isn’t long until the eye contact becomes too much. She turns to the TV instead, not even paying attention to what was playing.
When she’d imagined a demon, this isn’t like the picture that came to mind at all. He’s short, and looks just like a human. He could easily just be a regular human being. That is, if he hadn’t just come out of a summoning circle that was probably still on her kitchen floor.
Eventually, because she can’t stand the silence, she asks, “Are there more of you?”
“More of me? Well, I don’t think so. I’m the only Meliodas I know of!”
His tone is light, but it doesn’t take much to see through him. He’s avoiding the question.
She cuts him some slack (Really? Cutting a demon some slack? What was she doing? ) and instead says, “Meliodas? Is that your name?”
The demon blinks up at her, with those innocent looking green eyes. He grins.
“Yep. I’m Meliodas. Nice to meet you!”
Elizabeth unwillingly smiles. She can’t help it. How could you not smile in response to that? For a moment, she forgot he was a demon.
“I’m Elizabeth,” she says softly, despite him already knowing her name, “Nice to meet you too.”
Then, his stomach rumbles and cuts through the silence like a knife. She laughs.
“Hey! Don’t laugh!” he pouts.
“So, demons get hungry too?” she says, “What do you even eat?” Elizabeth didn’t like how fast she was getting comfortable with this situation. The whole demon in her living room situation.
“What-?” he asks, and almost looks surprised for a second but as fast as it appeared the expression was gone. Elizabeth wonders if she imagined it.
“Well, you know, souls. Human flesh. All that good stuff.” he says as casually as one would comment on the weather . He says it so casually that Elizabeth actually wonders if she heard him right.
Elizabeth feels faint again, she knew getting comfortable would be a mistake. She should’ve done something else—even if it was only leaving.
“...What about a granola bar instead?” Elizabeth asks, quietly after a few seconds.
“A what?”
She stares at him, incredulous, and this time it’s Meliodas who looks away first.
“Hey,” he says, gaze fixed on her lamp which was apparently very interesting, “What’s with that look?”
“You don’t know what a granola bar is?”
Meliodas folds his arms and doesn’t reply. He’s still very pointedly staring at the lamp.
Suddenly, Elizabeth realises. He’s embarrassed. Or at least, she thinks he is. Meliodas isn’t exactly an open book.
“You’re embarrassed,” she murmurs. She didn’t mean to say it out loud.
He tenses up, so he heard her then. “No. Why would I be? I know what a granola bar is.”
She smiles. “Okay. Will I get you one then?”
Meliodas frowns, and looks like he’s about to say no. He doesn’t. Instead, he just nods.
The surreality of the situation hits Elizabeth as she walks into the kitchen, and sees the summoning circle. It's a reminder of what Meliodas is. And how he got here.
Wait. How he got here…
Merlin! She forgot about Merlin! How did she forget? The other woman would know what to do. She’d have to know how to make the demon leave.
Except… Elizabeth isn’t sure she wants him to leave. That thought is frankly more off putting than this entire situation.
Meliodas was a demon. She couldn’t just let this demon move in. What was she thinking?
Elizabeth frowns at the thought of what Merlin might do though, the other woman was many things but gentle wasn’t one of them.
“Hey,” Meliodas says, startling her out of her thoughts. She didn’t hear him come in. “I was wondering what was taking you so long. Why are you just standing around?”
“I was wondering how I’d wash your summoning circle off the ground.” Elizabeth replies. She didn’t want to lie so instead she told a half-truth. It wasn’t completely false, she had thought about that earlier.
He hummed, “That’s a good question.”
Elizabeth turns to him, “You mean you don’t know?”
Meliodas shrugs, “I have no idea. Don’t have much experience in the area!”
Elizabeth sighs and decides to figure it out later. Instead she walks over to her cupboard and takes out a granola bar.
The kitchen knife is still on the floor by the summoning circle, and Elizabeth mentally notes to pick it up later. She doesn’t want to accidentally stand on it.
When she turns around to face Meliodas, his eyes are already on her. She looks at him questioningly and he shrugs.
“Come on, let's go back into the living room.”
“The living room?” Meliodas repeats, with a concerned frown, “As opposed to what? The dead room?”
Elizabeth doesn’t even dignify that one with a response. She can’t tell if he’s being serious or not, and honestly, she thinks she’d be better off not finding out.
They get settled on the couch and Elizabeth half pays attention to the old game show playing on the TV as she tries to gather herself.
Right. She’d gotten way too comfortable in this situation much too quickly. Here she was, sharing her granola bars with a demon who was in her living room. Great.
“So,” Elizabeth breaks the silence, not entirely sure what to say but her mouth was carrying her brain, “You’re a demon.”
Meliodas raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, I thought we already established that one.”
Elizabeth buries her head in her hands. “Oh my god. There’s a demon in my living room.”
Meliodas (the demon , her brain supplies) laughs at her misery. “Hey, come on. Don’t faint on me again. I’m not going to eat your soul or anything… yet.”
It takes Elizabeth’s brain a few moments to process that sentence.
“Yet?!” she turns to look at him, fear bubbling up in her chest. Instead of his gaze being fixed on her, which she half expected, he’s frowning down at the granola bar.
The unopened granola bar. With bite marks on the packaging.
“Oh.” Elizabeth says.
Meliodas turns to look at her with a blank look. “I know how to use it. Just… waiting.”
She can’t help but feel amused. Again though, she’s getting too caught up in this demon’s pace. Elizabeth can’t let her guard down.
And yet.
“Waiting for what?” She still replies. Instead of doing the sane thing to do in this situation which is to get an exorcism. Sell her house. Flee the country. Something that isn’t chatting with the demon.
Meliodas half shrugs. “Well, you know.”
Elizabeth very much does not know. Instead of saying this though, she just nods. “Yeah… yeah, I know.”