The Hydra Sin (SDS)

Chapter 19- Calm Before a Storm

The next few days were full of an odd mix of emotions, I followed behind King and Diane as they had the flirtiest race through a city that I had ever seen. I mean, honestly, Diane was teasing King the whole time, and he just had this weird as crap grin on his face as he followed. The reason I was following him was that I had stumbled on them earlier, and I really wanted to find out if my ship would sail or not. Sadly, it didn't, it was close though!

I knew that there was some unresolved tension between Ban and Meliodas, though it clearly was coming from Ban; I was pretty sure that he still had the Goddesses offer on his mind, which was really sad to watch. I wanted to step in and talk to him, but I knew that there was nothing really that I could do at this point, I just had to let him get his tension out on his own.

It had been a week since the battle of Liones, and we were all sitting in the tavern talking and enjoying life when Ban decided to resolve his irritation.

"Meliodas! We need to fight." He slurred, completely drunk.

I facepalmed as I watched as Meliodas, who was equally drunk, leaned on him and responded, "Sure Ban, that would be a lot of fun, but we would have to find somewhere where no one else would get hurt."

"You're so smart Captain, too bad I'm going to kick your butt." Ban giggled, yes, he giggled and laid his head on his arms. We were all watching this interaction with curiosity and incredulousness that these two people, who were usually so smart and articulate, could be so stupid with enough drinks in their system.

"Yeah right, I'm going to kick yours long before that happens!" Meliodas hiccupped, "How about we fight at the top of the mountain behind us tomorrow at dawn? That sounds safe."

"Yeeeaaahhh. Man, Captain, you're really good at this stuff! Oh wait, we can't let the others find out about this, can we?" Ban asked and the two looked at us, then turned their backs and continued to plan their fight while trying to whisper.

I was holding my sides trying not to laugh at this point, I knew that a fight was probably inevitable, but to think that it would happen like this was completely unexpected! I saw that everyone in the tavern was looking at the two with the same mix of amusement and disbelief, which made it even harder not to laugh.

"Do you even think that they'll remember this conversation?" Gilthunder asked and Merlin, Diane, and I all looked at each other, then nodded quickly.

"Gil, this is Ban and Meliodas we're talking about, they are two of the most experienced drinkers in the kingdom. To forget a promise like this would be an unthinkable move, especially since it involves a fight." I said and finally, a small giggle escaped.

"Yeah, where there's a fight is where you'll find these two, they're so silly!" Diane added on, with a small hiccup and blush; obviously, Ban and Meliodas weren't the only drunk ones here. Most of us were tanked, but I had only been sipping at my drink, because I had stuff I needed to get done the next day, and I really didn't want to deal with a hangover.

Merlin looked into her cup and sighed, "I suppose we should probably be there to make sure that they don't take down the whole mountain range; I don't even want to think of the paperwork that we would have to deal with if they did that."

I nodded and then remembered that I needed to ask her something, "Hey Merlin, would I be able to use your library tomorrow? There's something I need to research, and I know that your library is the best around for anything magic related."

"You're going to miss the fight?" She asked with a small smirk on her face and I nodded.

"I would love to see it, but I would like to get a head start on investigating our next challenge... Wait, did we tell you about it?" I asked as I realized that Merlin hadn't been with us through everything, so she might be a bit behind.