"When the battle is done, and you think that you have won- don't dance on my grave just yet. If you are the moon then I am the sun, I won't let you forget. In my own time I will take back what's mine, for you are not my friend. In the dark of the night and the shifting of the tides, I will come for you then. For a woman's desire for revenge outlasts all other emotions…"

Aelfthryth, The Tiger Sin of Revenge. ( E-el-thrif-th)

0o.0.0.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Alright boys, I got your beers for you right here. Thanks for waiting." carefully setting the cluster of five mugs of ale down on the table, a pink haired woman with baby blue eyes playing waitress straightened and smiled lightly at the tipsy group of men she had been serving. "Thanks Alfie, you're a real doll you know that?" one of them slurred slightly with a bright smile as he and his friends took their individual mugs.

"Oh, well thank you for saying that." the pinkette blushed a little, turning towards the jingle of the door bell being hit. "Hey there, got room for a few more?" two men stood in the doorway of the crowded tavern. "Sure do!" Alfie assured, " just pick a spot and shove the guys aside, they'll make room for you." she said good naturedly, grabbing the five empty ale mugs from the table she had been serving and walking off.

"You gotta admit shes's one hard worker," the same man from before noted, " I can't believe she and that little guy working the bar are the only ones servers this whole place." hearing this, Alfie paused and looked over her shoulder. "Oh he's not a server, he's the owner." the woman corrected, continuing on her way knowing that she had successfully surpised the group of men. "Hey Mel! I need two more!" Alfie called, watching as he came from the back carrying a meat pie to a table. "Just a second, Alfie!" the blonde called back, setting the plate down for a group of three.

"Here you go, the meat pie that makes the Boar Hat famous." Meliodas smiled brightly, placing his hands on his hips. "Oh wow it looks great!" three males chorused together, each taking a spoon full of pie and shoving it in their mouths eagerly. "Three...two...one." Alfie counted right on time for the men to spit the food out in unison, coughing and hacking away.

"It's to be expected, The Boar Hat is really well known for our amazing booze but crappy food." Meliodas commented lightly. "I can't believe you haven't hired a chef yet." Alfie came up beside him. "Hm?" the blonde looked up at her confused. "What would I do that for when I have you?" he wondered. "Because I'm not actually in the kitchen, nor will I be. People are too picky when it comes to food" the woman reminded.

"H-Hey wait a minute!" one of the vicitms got the duo's attention. " You know your food is revolting yet you still serve it? Do you think it's funny to do that to people?!" Meliodas and Alfie blinked calmly at the riled up trio, "Well technically he keeps on doing it," she pointed to the blonde male next to her, though it did nothing to calm them from their increasing rage.

"You can't pin it just on him, you're involved too!" they all yelled. Narrowing her eyes on them, Alfie suddenly disappeared and had the burliest one out of the three pinned to the table with one hand on his head and twisting his arm to the breaking point with the other in a blink of an eye. " That's not a problem is it?" the pinkette growled down at him, his friends flinching and taking a couple steps back.

"She moved so fast!" one cried out in the now dead silent tavern. "Is it?!" Alfie asked again when she didn't get an answer, twisting the man's arm even further. "No!" her victim screamed, "No it's not!" he wailed in pain, leading the woman to release her hold on him with a huff. "That's what I thought...Hawk!" Alfie then called, "Come clean up the mess out here!" the pinkette instructed, referring to the meat pie that had gotten knocked to the ground. Strolling out from the back room, Hawk's round pink form appeared. "A mess?" the pig echoed dubiously.

"I would hardly call this a mess. What do you need me for?" he looked up at Meliodas and Alfie unamused. " If it's on the ground, then it's a mess that needs to be cleaned." Alfie iterated. "Or do we need to find a new captain for the Order of Scraps Disposal?" Hawk squealed in horror at the suggestion, whipping around and digging his snout into the disgarded meat pie with feavor. "No! No way ma'am, I'm on it! See? See?!" he cried as he ate, leaving the floor positively sparkling by the time he was finished.

Smirking, Alfie knelt down and patted Hawk's head lovingly, "Yes, you did a good job, Captain Hawks." she acknowledged. "Hey Alfie," Meliodas caught her attention, "I'm going to run into town to get some more food supplies." he told her. "Now? We're filled to the brim here!" Hawk protested whole heartedly for the woman. "Yeah, and everyone's content. I won't be long." the blonde promised. " Do you want anything while I'm out?" Meliodas asked but Alfie shook her head. "No, I'm fine." the pinkette rose to her original height. " Good, see you soon then." the short blonde bid with a wave over his shoulder before disappearing out the door.

"Well Captain Hawk, it looks like it's just you and me to hold this ravel down. Do you accept this mission?" Alfie said in a playfully stern way. "Yes, ma'am!" Hawk saluted with one of his floppy long ears, following his friend behind the bar to help in any way he could. The peace in the tavern was kept for a good handful of minutes until some poor soul came barging in yelling about seeing the Wandering Rust Knight on his way here.

"The Wandering Rust Knight?"

"I've been hearing rumors about that too."

"That's just a made up story along with all the others!"

Alfie rolled her eyes at the tavern patrons conversing amongst one another and focused on refilling mugs of beer here and there. "Made to scare children into behaving. If you don't do what I tell you then one of the Eight Deadly Sins will come for you in blood rusted armor." another laughed drunkenly. "Say, Archie...who are the Eight deadly sins?" a younger man asked from his seat at the bar, turning to some of the men seated at a table closest to him. "You mean you don't know, Ollie?" the brunette haired man asked, sobering up a bit.

"Their wanted posters are hanging up all over, even in this tavern over there." he motioned to the wall where eight posters were hung on the bulletin board, each with a name written in bold under the portraits.

"It was about ten years ago where dozens of holy knights were killed so fast that they couldn't even defend themselves properly. The sins were responsible for it, and from what I hear - they're behind the murder of the holy knight's grand master from back then too. Them being Diane- The Serpent's Sin of Envy, Ban - The Fox's Sin of Greed, King- The Grizzly's Sin of Sloth, Gowther- The Goat's Sin of Lust, Merlin- The Boar's Sin of Gluttony, Escanor- The Lion's Sin of Pride, and then the leader of them all was their Captain, Meliodas - The Dragon's Sin of Wrath." Archie recited.

The man dubbed Ollie was silent for a breif moment before he realized something, "Hey, you're missing one. You only named seven. Who's the last one? I can't see from here." Ollie portrayed, the final wanted poster was blocked by another patron's head. " Meliodas may have led them but there are rumors suggesting that he took orders from someone else." Archie mused.

" Aelfthryth ( A/N: E-el-thrif-th), The Tiger's Sin of Revenge. It's said that the Holy Knights and the former Grand Master wronged her greatly and Aelfthryth led the attack against them all. They say that the only sin to match her power is Meliodas. It's highly possible that either Meliodas was just a face to the public as captain or that Aelfthryth was second to him and they co-led the sins together. What ever countries or villages that were brought down by the sins, you can bet that one or the other was mainly responsible for the most damage." Archie finished.

"And to think that they're still alive roaming around somewhere." Ollie shivered. "Don't worry, Ollie." his friend assured, "Even if they did show up, the Holy Knights would protects us." Archie laughed, along with a few others. However their laughter was brought to a hault when loud footsteps from outside suddenly sounded. "Does anyone else smell rust?" Hawk asked aloud, taking a few sniffs of the air. "Am I supposed to?" Alfie asked curiously, sniffing the air for herself. The door creaked open a moment later, revealing a large armored creature. "The Eight...deadly...sins…" came a distorted voice as it slowly marched in.

"IT'S HERE!" every customer screamed in fright before rushing out of the tavern, fleeing for their lives. There were even some who jumped out the window. Alfie's brows raised high into her hairline at the mess that was left in their wake, she didn't think Hawk would eat broken glass and dropped beer cups. "Meliodas is going to be pissed." she looked about the now empty bar.

"We were making a good haul of cash too." the woman sighed disappointedly before hopping the counter and standing before the mysterious arrival. "Can I help you, stranger?" Alfie looked up at the imposing figure unimpressed. However instead of getting an answer, Alfie watched as the creature suddenly collapsed onto its back- knocking the helmet clean off of its' shoulders.

Peering around its large frame, it was revealed that the person inside the armor was a light green haired girl. An unconscious one at that. "Well, what do you know…" Alfie trailed off. "It's a girl."Hawk realized for himself, "Is she really one of the sins?" he asked. Alfie then knocked a knuckle into the side of the pig's head. "Don't insult them like that, Hawk." she scolded over the pig's wails of apparent piggy cruelty. " You'll end up on a dinner plate if they catch you saying something like that again." Hawk's wails soon turned into a screech of fright at the thought.

Moving forward, Alfie hauled the strange girl over her shoulder and made for the stairs - armor and all. "What are you doing Alfie?" Hawk asked. "Going to go lay her down upstairs of course." the pinkette replied climbing the stairs. Kicking open the door to Meliodas' room since it was closest to the stair case, the woman placed the girl on the bed. Piece by piece Alfie worked on removing the armor, tossing the parts off to the side carelessly.

"You've traveled alot Alfie. Do you recognize her?" Hawk asked once she was finally done. "Not at all." the woman sighed, "Doesn't matter anyways. Let's go get down stairs cleaned up before Meliodas comes back." Alfie headed for the door, using the handrail to steady her as she and Hawk descended back onto the main floor. "We should track every single one of those guys down and make them come clean up theirselves." Hawk grumbled, grabbing a few cups off the ground with his teeth and placing them on the bar counter. "Not a half bad idea honestly," Alfie murmured as she righted fallen chairs and stools.

Despite the mutal agreement on what they should do, Alfie and Hawks cleaned up the bar area by theirselves within the hour or so. The duo had been celebrating a job well done with a beer and meat pie when a gentle voice suddenly called out. "Um excuse me." the blue eyed woman's eyes widened at the new voice and turned to look over her shoulder to find the source.

It was the girl they had put to rest up stairs. "Hey, what's up?" Alfie greeted casually. " I um" she blushed lightly, "I was just wondering where I was and what happened…" she trailed off unsurely. "The Boar Hat. You wandered in, scared off our customers and then fainted." Alfie turned in her chair to face her fellow woman. The green haired female looked horrified at the mere thought of doing such a thing.

"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to chase away your customers, I promise!" she cried. "Ah don't worry about it." Hawk jumped into the conversation. "You saved us the trouble of having to kick everyone out later anyways." he shrugged. The new comer blinked twice before launching herself with a squeal at Hawk, "Oh you're so cute, I've never seen a talking piggy like yourself before!" she hugged the animal and pet him all over.

"I asked my dad a long time ago to get me a pig just like this but I never got one." she confessed. Alfie snorted, "If you like him so much then you can keep him." she joked dryly sipping at her beer, smirking at the outraged cry that followed from the pig himself.

"I'll have you know a pig of my caliber isn't so easily replaced!" Hawk protested angrily. "So you got a name, doll face?" Alfie quirked a brow as she eyed the wall of alcohol blankly, ignoring her animal friend. "Oh!" the girl exclaimed, realizing her rudeness. " I'm so sorry, my name is Elizabeth." she introduced herself . "Alfie." the pinkette said plainly, "The pig is Hawk." she pointed to the animal himself. "Hi there! It's nice to meet you." Hawk chirped, "Are you hungry Elizabeth? You're awful thin you know." he pointed out.

"Oh no I couldn't possibly impose!" Elizabeth fretted, only to be bullied into a chair by Hawk. "Nonsense, you're our guest. It's our duty to serve our guests after all." the pig explained. "Glad you'll be cooking for her then." Alfie commented, yelping when her stool was suddenly knocked out from under her. "YOU'RE THE ONE WITH THUMBS YOU DO IT!" Hawk yelled in her ear.

"Roasted pig will do just fine then, wouldn't you agree?!" Alfie yelled right back, causing Hawk to gasp in fright and take off with the pink haired woman on his tail. "That's not funny!" Hawk wailed. "I never said I was joking!" sliding to a halt, Alfie took her beer bottle and chucked it at the pig's head. Elizabeth winced a the direct contact it made and fidgeted in her seat. "It's really alright, I don't want to be a bother." she tried.

Sighing in defeat, Alfie waved off the comment. "No I suppose Hawk has a point, you are a guest." she then made for the kitchen and started grabbing a few ingredients left and right half heartedly to make a sandwhich and get some chips for the poor girl. After a few minutes, Alfie returned back out into the bar area with a plate in hand and placed the simple meal before Elizabeth.

"It's not much, but I really don't like cooking for people. They're too picky." Alfie said bluntly. "No, no. This is perfect thank you." Elizabeth assured, picking up the sandwich and biting into it. "How is it? Alfie is no cook but usually her food is better than the boss's on the rare occasion when she does throw something together." Hawk asked.

"It's delicious. Thank you." Hawk and Alfie were surprised when a tear suddenly ran down her face. "This is the first real kindness I've been shown since I've been on the road." Elizabeth admitted. " Can't exactly say I'm surprised," Alfie used a napkin to wipe away the tear, " you walking around in the armor was bound to get you some unsavory attention from people….What were you doing walking around in it anyways?" she asked. "I'm on a quest to find the eight deadly sins." Elizabeth revealed. "Huh? Why would you do that? No even knows if they're alive or not. To top it off they're villians too" Hawk pointed out.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by someone pounding on the front door. "Open up!" a man shouted from outside, " The villagers told us who's in there! We are the Order of the Beard of the Mountain Cat serving under the holy knights stationed at the foot of the mountain. Wandering Rust Knight, member of the deadly sins - come out and do so peacefully!" he demanded.

Alfie's brows raised at this, "See? What did I tell ya? Unsavory attention" she quipped, moving out from behind the bar and moved towards the door. "There's a back door that leads to the forest, use that to get away." Alfie began to explain without looking backwards. "All you have to do is keep going straight and you'll reach a cliff, wait there and we'll come get you once these guys are dealt with. Understand?" Elizabeth didn't answer for a moment, stunned to hear the words coming from her fellow woman.

She couldn't believe that these strangers were helping her. "Elizabeth what are you doing? Get going!" Hawk pushed the green haired girl off the stool and onto her feet. "R-Right!" she stuttered and hurried to the backdoor. Once she was sure Elizabeth made it out the door, Alfie opened the front door right in time to see a group of five knights standing there - the leader with a raised fist making to pound on the door once again. "I don't know who you are but I know you aren't paying any bills around here to be pounding on my door like this. Consider yourself lucky my boss isn't here or he would have your butts mounted on the wall." Alfie bluffed.

The soldiers all recoiled slightly before their leader recovered first, "Enough playing around, we know you have the Rust Knight in there, send him out!" he demanded. Alfie looked to him unimpressed, "There's no such thing in this tavern." she denied. "Don't give us that crap!" one of his lackies cried, "We've had several reports-"

"Reports from men that have been drinking here all day?" Alfie interuppted in a dull tone, poking a hole in their logic. Flinching at this the men looked amongst each other uncertainly, "If you're having doubts." the pinkette played on their indecisiveness, "Then go ahead and search for the knight yourself." she stepped aside to allow them into the tavern.

None of them moved, none sure what to do. Alfie was sure they were about to leave in defeat until one of them suddenly tensed as he caught something out of the corner of his eye. "Captain, look! A girl just ran out from the back of the bar!" he cried, causing Alfie to sigh in frustration. "Damn it Elizabeth." she cursed as the knights ran after her with fervor.

"Now what?" Hawk popped up beside Alfie. " Now," the woman sighed. "You go chase them down." she said simply. " What?!" Hawk exclaimed incredulously. "And if you do, a certain captain of scraps disposal will have extras to eat tonight." Alfie sang, smirking when the pig was gone in a flash in order to earn his reward. "Meliodas sure has been gone awhile…" Alfie then noted offhandedly, looking out over the hill and down at the town where the blonde apparently went for more supplies.

"Hope he didn't get lost." she commented lightly before running in the same direction every one else had. Leaping tree to tree at incredible speeds, it didn't take long for Alfie to spot Elizabeth's green head up ahead. From the side she could see Hawk bowling over the knights one by one with fervor until it was just the captain left. Disappearing in the blink of an eye, Alfie appeared further ahead in Elizabeth's path of travel and snatched the woman off to the side right before she could run past - covering her mouth to hide the scream she tried to let out.

"Easy, Elizabeth." Alfie murmured quietly, watching as the Captain of the knights ran past oblivious to the duo and skidded to a halt just before the edge of the cliff. "Where'd the girl go?" Alfie heard him ask before Hawk appeared out of no where and rammed him straight off the edge of the cliff with no remorse. "Sorry guy, but I have a lot of food on the line tonight." Hawk said as Elizabeth and Alfie emerged from the tree line.

"Not bad, Hawk." Alfie acknowledged, Elizabeth creeping closer to the edge of the cliff to overlook the land. "Hey, doll face." Alfie called out to Elizabeth, "What makes you want to find the sins anyways?" she asked. "I need to find them, so I can ask if they can stop the holy knights." Elizabeth told her. "Why would you want to do that? They're knights of the Kingsmen, they protect Liones!" Hawk proclaimed.

" But what if they were the ones trying to throw our nation into a war?" Elizabeth's brow furrowed, "What if they were the ones who had the entire royal family arrested and just told people that the king was laid up sick in bed?...The holy knights are determined to throw Liones into war and I don't know why, but they've started drafting men from all over and soon they'll even spread their influence all the way out here." she frowned sadly.

"Man that sucks." Alfie said lightly, only to be nudged by Hawk. "Could you at least try and have a little more sympathy?" he asked with an annoyed look. " Sooo I still don't get how this involves the sins." the woman kicked Hawk in retribution. "If the Holy Knights are to be stopped, then the sins are the only ones who can do it!" Elizabeth said with no room for argument, " I know what the rumors say - that they're probably dead after being forced the scatter when the Holy Knights launched a full force attack on them but I don't believe it. They wouldn't just die like that! I would sooner stand by their side than by the sides of those corrupt knights!" she exclaimed passionately.

No sonner did she say that, Alfie sensed something behind her and grabbed Elizabeth and Hawk and darted away right on time to avoid a blast aimed at them. "Oops," Alfie heard a masculine voice said mockingly a moment later. Peaking out from behind the tree they hid behind, the pink haired woman watched as the ground where they used to be standing crumbled down the cliff side to the ground below.

It had been a towering knight in red armor that had been responsible for the attack. "I forgot to check to make sure they were the people in the report. Oh well." the grey haired man shrugged. "In conclusion there are two people of unknown origin dead. Does that sound about right?" he looked back at his companions who turned out to be the men Hawk had knocked out from earlier.

"Bastard." Alfie glared murderously at the hulk of a knight. The attempt on their lives was not taken lightly by the pink haired woman. "But sir! Allioni was still down there!" one of the lesser knights protested. "Well then just change it to three people of unknown origins dead." the armored knight corrected. "Now that's too far, Sir Twiggo, you can't do that!" another underling protested.

"Then I'll change the report to seven." Twiggo glared at his companions and closed in on them menacingly. "Hey Alfie." Unlike Elizabeth and Hawk, the pink haired woman remained calm when Meliodas suddenly appeared next to her with Allioni over his shoulder. "Hey Mel," she answered a bit distractedly, keeping an eye on the knights.

"Do me a favor and keep an eye on doll face will ya?" she requested before launching out of her hiding spot without an answer. Right as Twiggo placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, Alfie was appeared right before his eyes and delivered a powerful kick to his face that sent the knight flying backwards.

"What?"

"It's her from the bar earlier!"

Alfie said nothing in responce to the weaker knights exclamations, keeping her eyes locked onto Twiggo who was working on getting to his feet. " Such insolence!" he roared, "I'll teach you to attack me!" the knight unsheated his sword, and swung it - unleashing an energy wave so powerful that it cut all the forest trees clean in half. "Temper, temper...and they say I have a bad one " Alfie tsked having successfully dodged the attack, greeting Twiggo's widened eyes with calm ones.

"H-How did she dodge sir Twiggo's attack so easily?" a knight asked with a slight stutter. "She dodged his earlier one too, did you see that?" another asked. "We have to get out of here." the order knights flinched when their friend Allioni suddenly appeared beside them. "Allioni!" they exclaimed in unison.

Meliodas looked at his shoulder where the man was supposed to be and seen that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him after all. "Whoops...guess I let him get away huh?" he said perplexed. "How did you not notice that until now!" Hawk yelled, stamping a hoof. "Sorry." the blonde shrugged casually.

"We have to get out of here, now!" Allioni's shout drew their attention. "What are you talking about Allioni, sir Twiggo can handle her no problem. Granted, she's quick on her feet and has a mean kick but that's nothing." one of his companions dismissed. Allioni's eyes diolated at this, grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt. "You don't get it do you?!" he yelled.

"We have to get out of here, and do it now! He's already attacked her - there's no saving him! There may even be no saving this country!" Allioni yelled, eyes laced with fear. "Don't tell me you guys didn't see it just now….THE MARK ON HER NECK!" he shouted, voice cracking from strain. "She has to be it, there's no mistaking it!" together the knights looked to where Alfie stood before Twiggo with a calm façade, the wind blowing back her long pink locks and revealing the dark red mark of a tiger on her neck.

"It's the Tiger Sin of Revenge, Aelfthryth!" Allioni cried in terror. From her spot next to Meliodas, Elizabeth's eyes widened greatly. "S-she's the...tiger sin?" the green haired woman stuttered in disbelief. " Sure is." Meliodas grinned from beside her, "Alfie's the real deal." he chuckled. "Wait a minute, now I remember your face!" Twiggo then realized after staring at the woman for a long moment, "And I can't believe you have the audacity to still exist!" he raged, raising and sword and bringing it straight down with intentions on slicing the woman clean in half.

However, with one brought up arm - Alfie stopped the attack clean in its tracks, grasping the blade between her two fingers. Twisting her fingers, Alfie snapped the blade in two without much care in the world. "Correct me if I'm wrong but you've come after my life three times just now - yes?" she quirked a brow. "In all fairness I am in my rights to get revenge, wouldn't you think?" Alfie's fingers twitched in anticipation, "Because I would think that very much," her lips curled into a wicked smile.

"Uh-oh." Meliodas pursed his lips before throwing Elizabeth over one shoulder in one smooth move - giving her rear end a handful of strokes- and shoving Hawk under his other arm before taking off back towards his tavern. "But wait! We can't leave Lady Alfie!" Elizabeth cried with a blush. "Trust me. You are not going to want to be around Alfie right about now." Meliodas chuckled nervously.

"Anyways, what's your name? I'm Meliodas." the blonde smiled over her shoulder. "Meliodas?" Elizabeth repeated with a blink, a small gasp escaping past her lips a moment later. "Wait a minute! If Alfie is a sin...then does that mean you're one too?!" Elizabeth assumed. "Sure am." Meliodas gave a closed eye grin, "Meliodas the Dragon Sin of Wrath." he introduced himself. "I heard some of your conversation before with Alfie, how you were ready to stand side by side with the Eight deadly sins but I missed the reason why that was." the blonde admitted.

"The holy knights have totally become corrupt! Bonkers!" Hawk exclaimed before Elizabeth could explain. "What?" Meliodas' brow raised. "They've locked up the royal family and are lying to the entire kingdom! They're gonna send the entire country into a war we have no business being in!" the pig continued. "Is that true?" Meliodas pointed the question to Elizabeth.

"Well in simple terms, yes it is." the green haired girl nodded her head. "And you think we're enough to stop the holy knights…" Meliodas trailed off under his breath, leaving the rest of the journey in silence. Once he had arrived back at the tavern, the sin dropped Hawk carelessly in contrast to how he carefully set Elizabeth down. "I know they are." Elizabeth said with conviction as they entered the tavern, bringing the conversation back into play. "You guys are the best knights this country has ever pushed out, there is no one better!" there was no changing her mind no matter what anyone said, apparently.

"Well Elizabeth, I guess this means that you're off to a good start. You've met two out of eight of the sins already." Meliodas pointed out. "As far as the six others go, I have some business to discuss with them. So I've been looking for them myself. Alfie does pretty good at attracting customers and getting information out of them but she has a tendency to get a bit violent from time to time." he admitted. "But if you were to join us, you'd be able to balance that out, maybe even pull in even more customers." Meliodas suggested.

Elizabeth sat down on her stool she occupied earlier, piecing together what the blonde boy was saying. "Pull in more customers?" she repeated lost. "Well do you have a better idea on how to find the others?" Meliodas hopped the bar counter and grabbed a beer, " You are coming with us, aren't you?" he rose a brow. "Y-You mean you'll help me?" Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Well of course I will, why wouldn't I?" Meliodas wondered, surprised when the green haired girl's eye watered suddenly before tears rolled down her cheek. "You...you can't believe how happy that makes me." she sniffled lightly, wiping away her tears. " Well when you tell me what you just said, it doesn't exactly leave me with many options does it?" Meliodas said good naturedly, "Now let's talk about your uniform." he grinned toothily. "U-Uniform?" Elizabeth repeated innocently.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Cleaning of smidgeon of blood off her face, Alfie held a small smirk on her lips. "Now that he's out of the way." she turned to the knight dubbed Allioni and his companions, "Why don't you tell me what you guys are really doing snooping around here? I know you aren't just looking for the eight deadly sins, there has to be more than that. There always is." The men flinched but stayed tight lipped, "Oh? Well that won't do at all." Alfie frowned at their silence taking a step forward.

"The capitol issued a decree to bring Princess Elizabeth back home alive and unharmed!" one blurted before slapping his hands over his mouth. "Princess Elizabeth?" Alfie repeated, "Hold on, not the Elizabeth that was just here a few minutes ago." she threw a thumb over her shoulder to point in the direction Meliodas ran off with her. "So she's a princess, huh? That certainly does make things interesting doesn't it." Alfie said to herself thoughtfully, pinching her chin lightly between her thumb and pointer finger.

"Well alright, thanks for the info guys." the woman smiled kindly, throwing a peace sign over her shoulder and walking towards the ruined forest. "Princess Elizabeth huh? The third princess of Liones if I remember correctly." Alfie said to herself, flashing out of sight of the knights and reappearing on the porch of the tavern just in time for Momma Hawk to unearth herself from the ground down below. Opening the door to the tavern, she spotted Meliodas in the process of lifting up the folds of Elizabeth's skirt and peeking at her panty clad behind.

"MELIODAS!" Alfie snapped, causing Elizabeth to shreik and jump out of the blonde's reach with a heavy red blush while the blonde man himself merely blinked innocently at his pink haired friend and straightened. "Hey Alfie, what's up?" he waved a hand. Alfie huffed and rolled her eyes, stomping right past him without a word. "Hm? Alfie? Is there something wrong?" Meliodas followed after her to the bar.

"You got something to tell us, doll face?" Alfie instead turned to Elizabeth expectantly. "What do you mean?" her fellow blue eyed woman asked. "I found out something pretty interesting from those knights just a few moments ago." the pinkette reached over the bar top and pulled out a glass followed by a bottle of scotch.

"Would you like a drink...princess?" Alfie looked to Elizabeth boredly. "Princess?!" Hawk appeared out of no where with a squeal. "Princess?" Meliodas said a lot more calmer than the pig. "Oh...that." Elizabeth looked down sadly. "Yeah, that." Alfie sipped her drink. "Princess Elizabeth, third princess of Liones. You would think you might of mentioned that." she chided.

"I'm sorry." the princess whimpered. Alfie stared at her for a moment before waving it off with a smile, "If I had known you were a princess I would of fed you more than a sandwich and some chips." she chuckled. "You made her a sandwich and chips? Can you make me one too?" Meliodas asked. "No." Alfie said simply, causing Meliodas to whine in disappointment.

"Where are we headed, Hawk?" she turned to the pig. "Vanya village." he answered. "So why did that require Elizabeth to change into such a skimpy outfit? We have more decent clothes." Alfie noted. "Don't ask me, Meliodas put her in that outfit and said she was going to start waitressing." Hawk informed. A vein twitched in Alfie's forehead at this.

"Elizabeth, there are proper clothes upstairs in my room if you want to change." she told her new friend. "N-no it's okay really! I don't mind the outfit." Elizabeth assured. Alfie let out an unconvinced noise from the back of her throat but dropped the issue. "You know I could of answered that for you if you had asked." Meliodas pointed out, only to be snuffed with silence.

Hawk looked to Meliodas and noticed his stare was not waivering from Alfie, neither was the tension between the two. "Come on Elizabeth, let me get you set up in the spare room we have." he invited. "Oh okay," Elizabeth nodded, "But before that, there was a question I wanted to ask of you Sir Meliodas and Lady Alfie." she revealed. "What is it?" Meliodas asked.

"The eight deadly sins...they say you guys are truly wicked - made from the stuff of the darkest nightmares. Your crimes are supposed to be just as bad too, but to be honest I don't see it." Elizabeth frowned. "If you were truly wicked then you wouldn't be agreeing to helping me...especially you Alfie- they say that you're the worst of them all but you wouldn't have even taken me in if that was true...right? I mean what crime could you all have possibly of committed to deserve these accusations?" she inquired.

"Well I don't know if this is what you're looking for but Meliodas traveled through the kingdom ten years ago stealing all the panties he could find." Alfie shrugged. "That wasn't my crime." the blonde dismissed. "You're right, sorry. I mean his crime was stalking a thousand girls and groping their boobs." she snorted. "Pretty girls. That's the important part." Meliodas grinned. "Are you two serious?!" Elizabeth cried.

"No, not really."

The green haired princess deadpanned and opened her mouth to insist on a reason but was distracted by Hawk again. "Come on Elizabeth! We have a bit of ways to go yet, you can ask them later. Let's get you to your room" the pig insisted, nudging the girl away and succeeding this time in getting the princess to head for the stairs. "Sooo are you going to tell me why you've gotten your revenge on me with the cold shoulder or not?" Meliodas stood next to her once the girl and pig disappeared. "The cold shoulder hardly classifies as revenge." Alfie mused dryly. "Aelfryth." Meliodas looked at her pointedly.

"...She's a princess Meliodas," Alfie sighed heavily, " hardly the one to set your sights on or to get her to fall for you." she raised her cup to her lips and drank. "Who said either is happening?" the blonde returned. "I know you Mel, you don't put your hands on anyone who you don't see yourself with. In one way or another." Alfie proclaimed. "That is-!" Meliodas faltered when his long time friend turned and looked at him expectantly, "Fairly true." he finished weakly. "Which is why you need to stop now before it goes anywhere." the pinkette warned.

"Alfie." Meliodas laughed, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. "I don't even know the girl." he rested his head on her back, his thumbs snaking under her shirt and gently rubbing the skin of her waist. Alfie deadpanned at this, trying to fight off the blush on her cheeks. "Who said anything about getting into a relationship with her?" he asked, the vibrations from his voice rattled her frame deeply - a shiver worked its way down the spine of her back involuntarily.

"You don't need to know someone to sleep with them." the woman shook her head. "No?" Meliodas hummed. "Either relationship - a genuine one or just physical won't end well. That's all I'm saying. Do with it as you want but don't come crying to me to fix your mess when it comes back to bite you" Alfie warned. "You worry too much." Meliodas waved off her concern, he tightened his hold. "In fact you always worry too much when it comes to things like this….are you jealous?" he grinned into her back.

"Hardly" Alfie placed her hands on top of his and freeing herself from his grasp and slid off the stool in one smooth move. "I have one love, Meliodas, and her name is revenge." the woman said simply. "I would beg to differ." the sin captain boldly placed his hand on her butt and gave a squeeze. "Hey!" the woman squeaked with a heavy blush, jumping out of his hold. "There's no need to be jealous Alfie," Meliodas grinned coyly, "If you have something you want to say then just say it."

The female sin's cheeks burned at the implication as her hands protectively covered her backside. "I told you, I'm not jealous and there's nothing to say!" her brow twitched,"I'm only watching out for you. I don't want to see you hurt, or for you to hurt anyone." she insisted. Though his smile never waivered, Meliodas sobered. "Yeah, you always were good at that weren't you? Making sure none of us got hurt and that nothing ever happened to us…" he trailed off.

"Yeah I've done a real swell job at that." Alfie rolled her eyes, hands dropping back to her sides. "And if something did happen." Meliodas continued, "You always made sure to get revenge, one way or another. It was always you" he finished. "What are you trying to say?" Alfie asked. " I'm saying, Alfie, that it's okay to let someone else taking the lead every now and again. It doesn't always have to be you." Meliodas conveyed.

" You've been doing it for a long time and at least some of it has to have built up by now. It can't be easy living with what you've done in retaliation. If you ever need a break, all you gotta do is say so. Okay?" For a long moment, neither said anything further, blue eyes staring into green unwavering.

"..."

"...Yeah, okay." Alfie said softly with a small nod. "Good." Meliodas smiled, patting her arm good naturedly. "Now let's go see if Elizabeth is all settled in." he placed his hands behind his head and made for the staircase. "Sounds good to me." Alfie followed after, smiling in thanks when her friend motioned for her to climb the stairs before him. Raising one leg onto a stair, Alfie suddenly froze. It was unusually breezy underneath her skirt. "What's wrong Al'?" Meliodas asked innocently.

"GIVE ME BACK MY UNDERWEAR YOU PERVERT!"

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A/N: My first attempt at this kind of story, I only just started to watch Seven deadly sins and I'm in love with it already. Leave a review and let me know how I'm doing.