Broken

Watch Out!

Two hours had passed by since Meliodas snapped out of his breakdown, and yet it felt like a lifetime ago to his brother.

They had spent the time talking and getting his elder brother to take care of himself. Mainly cooking him some food that was much better prepared than the blond's own.

It was nice getting to spend time with him again, peaceful even. Zeldris finally felt happy, for the first time in a very long time. He just hoped that his brother felt the same way.

It was hard to tell what he was thinking because of the walls built up, and his incredibly awkward and timid personality made it even more difficult to tell if he was alright or if it was just that Meliodas was scared to tell him something was wrong.

The thought alone made Zeldris's heart drop at realizing why exactly Meliodas would feel scared in the first place. He was desperate to know more about him, and what had happened during their time apart, but he didn't want to push his brother away. The demon was terrified of pushing him back into the state he found the blond in by hurting him more than the ravenette already knew he was.

"Zeldy... What's wrong?"

He blinked as he was forced from his thoughts, a certain blond giving him a worried look. He almost smiled at the nostalgia he felt from it. No matter how hard he would try, Meliodas always knew when something was wrong. He called it his super big brother powers. Or at least he used to, before...

"Nothing. I'm just lost in thought I suppose."

Maybe his abilities would be deluded from their years apart, or he would decide not to pry.

"Zeldris...

Whelp, looks like that's not gonna happen.

"You want to know more about what happened... right?"

The boy in question stood with his mouth agape as he tried to composed himself. He was not only stunned by the question, but also because now that it was asked, he would have to answer. And he didn't want to upset Meliodas by saying the wrong thing.

"W-Well I-I um.. O-Only i-i-if y-you're um..."

Meliodas gave a sad smile before his eyes dimmed and he looked down, probably trying to determine if he was alright enough so say as well.

"I... I don't really know if I can really talk about it right now either. I mean... a lot of this is really new to me. I had gotten adjusted to my old lifestyle and had even learned to accept it. But now, I'm talking to my little brother who I thought was dead, and I'm living in a place with people that almost treat me like... equals. It's all so much to take in, and it's put me in a very... weird place. I'm not used to feeling much of anything anymore, but with you here and everything being so new, I feel like things are coming back to me all at once and it's disorienting. Does... Does that make sense?"

The ravenette nodded, feeling both saddened by his brother's struggles, and happy that he opened up, even if only a little.

Meliodas seemed to appreciate the understanding as he relaxed some and gave a relieved smile. However the moment was interrupted by a little boy trying to get both of their attentions.

"Meli! You're okay! Mama said you were sick and that Zeldy came to make you feel better. I'm so happy you're not sick anymore!"

He gave a smile at the boy before picking him up, reminding Zeldris of a distant past.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry Tristan. However I am feeling a lot better now. What about you little guy? What have you done while I was away?"

"Well, I got really excited when I heard Zeldy was coming over, but was also really nervous since I hadn't seen him in so long, so I ran around outside for awhile to get rid of some the energy."