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ribcages-and-bookpages · 1 year

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Raya x Meliodas (7 deadly sins)

(Oc x Meliodas, heres some info really quick on Raya.)

Starter;

Name: Raya Branwyne

Real Age: roughly 3000, on the younger end

Physical Age: 20's

Sex: female

Gender: female

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: bisexual

Birthday: January 31

Language:

Native Tongue: Nuwuri (the language of the elves) (has an accent similar to a Scottish accent, although a bit lighter)

Voice: soft, although higher pitched, and smooth

Eye Contact: always, unless nervous or if she is feeling an otherwise negative emotion

Appearance:

Hair Length: reaches her lower back

Eye Color: very light blue, almost grey

Body Type: inverted triangle

Height: 5'8

Piercing(s): just her ears

Freckles/Beauty Spots/Moles: she has random beauty marks across her body

Additional Physical Attributes: pointed ears and burn scars on the palms of her hands

Familial Ties:

Biological: mother - Odelina, father - Saer (deceased), Extended: mothers side: grandfather - Gabrien (deceased), grandmother - Ossane (deceased). father's side: grandmother - Rykeld, grandfather - Percyvallus (deaceased)

Combat Skills:

Hand to Hand: 1-10

Distance: 9-10

Melee: 4-10

Additional Information: Young raya:

In this world, there is much heartbreak and destruction in everyone's lives, but this story is about one individual who wants the bloodshed to stop; her name is Raya. Much like Elizabeth, she is a princess, although she received her title in a drastically different way than Elizabeth; Raya was chosen to be a princess by her people and even though Raya was not born a princess, she takes her title very seriously and would allow being ripped limb from limb if it meant protecting her people. But before we get into that, let's talk about Raya's family and how she gained her title of Princess.

The elves were once greatly numbered in the thousands, but during the Holy war they were used as weapons by the Goddesses, towards the demon Race and very few survived the aftermath, resulting in a little over 600 survivors. A few dozen years after this, Raya was born and raised like any other elven child at the time, and she quickly learned what it meant to be a loyal and kind person. Although their kingdom did allow visitors, it was rather small and mainly populated by the elven race. Due to the elves' natural talent for rarer magic and having more than one magical gift, they began to grow as well as prosper rapidly as time went on and became the main place to go for magical weapons or objects; due to some elves' ability to enchant. Unfortunately for the elves, this made them a target once again. Soon, Raya, age 13, and her fellow elves found themselves under attack once again; but this time it was barbarians. They sought to destroy the rich and magical kingdom and take the elves as their prisoners for their magic to use them however they saw fit.

Young Raya was at home when they attacked; and she was playing with her pet owl/cat, Onfroi on the floor, wearing a simple green sweater over a long blue sundress with her hair shoulder length red hair put in buns and braided with a flower clip in her hair. When suddenly, a barbarian crashed through the door and went for the person closest to him; Raya's mother, Odelina, but Raya's father, Saer, stepped into the path of the barbarian and created a small purple burst with his hands which launched the barbarian into the wall of their home, "I'll hold him off, you two must escape!" shouted Saer in a heavy accent. Odeline clutched a fearful Raya to her body, who then turned Raya's face towards her own and gently cupped her cheeks,

"Raya, my child, we must escape this place. Do you think you can teleport us out of here? It doesn't have to be far." Odelina said softly to her daughter, with her accent beginning to slip into her words as she spoke. Raya stared up at her mother with tear-filled eyes; she could feel the fear gripping her and desperately fought it off as she lowered her head and closed her eyes. She knew she had to do this, otherwise, the two of them had a very low chance of survival. She also knew that she had been training almost her entire life to use her abilities and fight to protect herself, and now was her chance to prove she can be strong like her mother, who fought during the Holy war. Finally opening her eyes. Raya took a deep breath as Odelina held her breath, afraid of breathing and distracting her daughter once again; and then it happened. Suddenly, a blue bubble began to form around them at a rapid rate, and in a flash, they were gone. Saer remained to battle the barbarian in their house while Odelina and Raya appeared in an alleyway a few houses over from their own.

As Raya and Odelina watched their world burn and crumble around them and heard the screams of those who were being slaughtered one by one, Raya felt more fear than she had ever experienced in her entire life begin to consume her once again, while Odelina did everything she could to not show her fear to her daughter. As a barbarian dropped down from the rooftops above and stood between the mother-daughter duo, Odelina decided enough was enough; and she began to use her flame magic and set the barbarian on fire and created a firewall in front of Raya so the barbarian couldn't get to her, and yelled over the chaos to her daughter,

"Raya! get to the forest! I'll meet you there!" She shouted, just barely audible over the roaring flames that made Raya's face tingle from the closeness of them. Then, Raya did just as her mother said and teleported herself to the edge of the village, but as soon as she appeared and attempted to take off into the forest, she heard someone calling her name and couldn't help but turn back and look to see who was calling her. Her Gaze focused on a younger girl, maybe 8 or 9, with straight dark brown hair that reached just past her shoulders and bright, almost neon green eyes. Behind her stood her home, which was encased in flames and was crumbling as she cried into her hands and yelled for help, although the words were just noise to Raya at the moment. Raya turned to look at the forest for just a few seconds as she felt the fear grip her once more and bring tears to her eyes, only to close her eyes and take a deep breath to calm her nerves. Opening her eyes again, Raya turned on her heel and ran over to the young girl,

"Sarra!" shouted Raya in a panic as her accent became heavier than usual, due to her fear, and she scooped up the girl and tried to bring her away from the fire, but Sarra, the young girl, protested by shouting and flailing

"no, Ogier is inside!" Sarra cried out as she tried to get out of Raya's grasp.

As the realization hit Raya that someone was inside the burning home behind her, she quickly set down the younger girl and turned towards the burning house, feeling fear tug at her for a moment before she swallowed that fear once more and charged into the burning house. Once inside, she covered her nose and mouth with the sleeve of her sweater and looked around frantically while calling out the name 'Ogier', which was the name of Sarra's four-year-old little brother. Finally, after what seemed like ages of search; which was only 30 seconds, she heard a small shout from the back of the house. She then pushed herself to go further into the house until she came upon a hallway that had collapsed, and a lone door at the end of the hall was blocked, which is where Raya could hear pounding coming from, as well as small shouts. Raya stared at the fallen beams of wood as they burned brightly and fear began to creep in again-

"Get it together." She told herself sternly as she shook her head a bit, then took a step forward and activated her abilities just as her foot hit the floor, causing her usual blue bubble to surround her; as soon as it was complete, she was gone, only to reappear at the end of the hall in the only corner of free space that wasn't on fire. Raya closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened her eyes and removed the sleeve from her face and began to try and pry some of the fallen burnt wood out from in front of the door, all while it crumbled into pieces and burnt her hands. She struggled for about a minute, having ripped off her sweater halfway into it until she couldn't hear the sounds of Ogier coughing anymore and that's when she decided it was time to try a different tactic. Without a second thought, Raya created a solid blue light in her hands, which moved in a punching motion towards the wood and let go of these blue orbs at the same time, which instantly blew apart the wood on contact. This now meant there was clearance to open the door, so Raya rapidly did so, although the handle to the door was too hot to touch so she slammed her shoulder into the door to open it, then rushed to the aid of the small child on the ground and quickly looked around for something to put over Ogier's face to prevent further smoke inhalation. Luckily for Ogier, Raya's sweater was nearby still and not on fire, so she grabbed that and put it over Ogier's face. Raya lifted the child in her arms and took a step in the direction of the exit, which was now entirely on fire, and glanced down at the wheezing boy in her arms while she ran towards the window. Her blue bubble began to surround her once again and then teleported to the other side of the wall moments before she came into contact with it.

Raya coughed a few times as she walked a few steps from the house, then dropped down on one knee as her adrenaline began to decrease, which was making her feel like all of the energy was being sapped from her body and she wanted nothing more than to faceplant into the dirt and take a literal dirt nap. But as Ogier's family ran towards Raya and scooped up the boy, all while profusely thanking Raya for saving the boy, Raya felt a bit of her strength return realizing she was the reason that boy was alive.

However, this was cut short as a deep voice spoke from the left side of Raya,

"You're that Brat from earlier! You're a sneaky one, just like that mother of yours. Too bad for you, your father was no match for me!" guffawed the voice. But, before Raya could even turn to look at who this voice belonged to, she was grabbed by her throat and lifted off the ground, "I'll make sure that doesn't happen this time." he growled lowly as he glared down at the young girl in his grasp, who stared back with rage in her own eyes. Now that Raya got a good look at the man, she realized that the man had narrow dark grey eyes, a pear-shaped head, scars that littered his very large muscular body, and a single yellow braid down the center of his head, while the rest of his head was shaved. And that's when it hit her. 'That's the man who killed dad.' Raya thought as she glared at the man with absolute hatred filling her expression, and without any hesitation, she clenched her fists and used her burst magic to create the blue balls that contain the explosions that her magic created, and slammed one of these into the man's throat with as much force as she could muster. At first, the man simply smirked at her, until the burst exploded at the same time as her punch, and the man was launched backward with such force that he released Raya and was blasted back into the burning village. Raya let out a small noise as she came in contact with the ground below and continued to lay there momentarily to recover emotionally. Based on the man's words, her father was dead or dying, and there was no way she could go back for him since there was fire everywhere, and by now for all she knew, he was dead, and there was nothing she could do if he was. Taking a deep breath as she had her eyes closed, she started to give herself a pep talk, 'There's no time to cry, right now. I gotta find mom. I gotta find mom, that's my goal. I can teleport around and find her and get us both out of here and-' Raya opened her eyes and went to stand up only to notice two hands in front of her face, both small. Raya looked up to see who the hands belonged to and felt relief and joy wash over her at seeing her mother as one of the owners of one of the two hands, while the other belonged to her neighbor and friend, Tobey, a young blond boy with purple eyes that was her age. Seeing their faces brought Raya more hope and newfound strength as she took both of their hands and stood up with their help, no longer feeling like the world rested on her shoulders.

The three spent then spent the next 20 minutes doing everything in their power and using their powers to retrieve survivors and get them to the edges of the village, so they could all escape together, into the forest to find somewhere safe, but it was cut short as a familiar face made an appearance once again.

Tobey and Raya were seated behind some large building debris and quietly whispering as they discussed their game plan and they tried to find a way around the literal giant wall of fire in the middle of the village.

"Your mom is scary. " Tobey said with a quiet, nervous chuckle, causing Raya to give the smallest smirk on her face as she glanced over the debris before quickly sitting again, worried she might be seen by the invading barbarians if she wasn't quick.

"Yeah, I had no clue she could do this kind of thing with fire. I know she said she was a 'scary' person during the war, but I never imagined this." replied Raya in a soft voice,

"Do you think it's a good idea for us to sneak over there to try and get survivors? what if we get caught?" Huffed Tobey at Raya, whose idea it was to go on the other side of the firewall. Raya turned and huffed softly in return to Tobey's words, and as she opened her mouth to speak she felt the words die in her throat upon seeing a spear come down over the debris and piece right through Tobey; it went into his abdomen and through to the other side as well as into the ground.

"Tobey!" shrieked Raya as blood bubbled in the young boy's mouth and he grasped at the spear, gurgling as he attempted to clumsily remove the spear. Raya forced herself to come to her senses and looked up above them to see who had done this, only to be met with the smiling face of a man she hoped she had seen the last of; the same man that killed her father. He was standing on a burnt wood beam to the roof of the building that once stood, and It seemed he wanted to settle the score between them, and Raya was happy to do so.

Raya's fearful gaze turned into one of hatred as a small growl left the back of her throat and she clenched her fists, all while activating both magics, both burst and teleportation. This caused the translucent blue bubble to form around Raya, as well as the blue balls that began to form in the palms of her hands.

"You think you scare me, kid?! I've seen men more than thirty times your size and I have never cowered in fear!" Laughed the barbarian man, only to stop short as he focused his vision and realized Raya wasn't on the ground anymore. The man blinked and looked around in confusion, unsure where she could have run off to, "Huh? Did she run? " he said as he began to turn around, but his thoughts were cut short as he heard a quiet voice behind him begin to speak,

"No, but you should." hissed Raya from behind the man as she stood on the beam behind him, her hands brought close together as she combined the balls of burst energy above her head, and before the man could react she brought her hands down on top of his head and sent him hurtling towards the ground below. Raya remained standing on the beam as she watched the man crash into the ground and dented the earth below him, only to leap off and down towards the man. As Raya was falling, she raised her arms above her again and created another burst ball with her hands then brought her hands down again with a shout as she got close to the man and let go of her burst; which exploded when it came in contact with his face. Raya was blown back by the backlash of her burst and used her teleporting abilities to teleport just above solid ground, a few feet from the man; although she nearly bounced off the ground as she impacted the earth due to the speed she was moving.

After a moment of recovery, Raya began to pull herself up off the ground as she panted in exhaustion from her rage, and then forced herself to stand up, only to stumble slightly to the left as she turned to look at where the man had landed. The man hadn't moved from his position on the ground and Raya found herself hoping he was unconscious at the least, and not just waiting for her to get closer. This thought caused her hands to close a bit as she began to make burst balls as she began to approach the man, only to nearly vomit from the sight in front of her; the man was missing half of his head, which seemed to have gotten blown apart during her last attack.

Raya stopped using her magic immediately and threw a hand over her mouth as she quickly turned around and moved to lean her body over a wall, then she violently threw up the contents of her last meal. Once she was sure she was done, she wiped her mouth and stood to look at Tobey, but just as she thought, he was already long dead due to the severity of his injuries. A sorrowful sigh left Raya, but it was cut short by an angry shout from a man in the not-so-far distance and Raya teleported out of the area before she ended up in another battle.

Raya appeared once again at the edge of the village, where her fellow elves and her mother waited, only to drop onto her knees and punch the ground with as much force as she could muster; undoubtedly injuring her hand in some way, although she completely ignored it and then shifted her weight onto her hands and panted softly as she closed her eyes. Odelina immediately rushed to her daughter's side and pulled the girl to her chest in a soothing embrace,

"Raya? What's wrong, my child? Where's Tobey?" she asked quickly, but she knew the answer to those questions when she felt Raya's breathing become shaky and decided to instead turn her efforts to motivating her daughter to keep moving, instead of grieving; after all, they were still in danger, "I'm sorry, honey, but we have to go. We all need to get out of here." Odelina said softly to Raya, who nodded in return and raised her tear-filled gaze to the families that she had helped save throughout the night; and she felt something shift in her. With a soft sniffle and a wipe of her left eye, Raya raised off the ground and looked to the group with a determined look taking over her expression before she began to speak,

"The rest of the village is trapped behind a wall of fire, but so is the rest of the army. We lower the wall and we risk the lives of everyone here right now, or we can keep it raised, find somewhere to set up camp, and then tend to the wounded. All for leaving, raise your hand. Those who wish to stay, raise a fist." she says in a calm, yet firm tone. Unknown to Raya, her mother was staring at her in shock and amazement at her sudden shift in personality, but it quickly turned to sorrow as Odelina realized it was these events that had changed her daughter, possibly forever. Raya quietly waited for everyone to raise their hands in some way, ignoring all of the aches and pains that she could feel all over her body, as well as how devastated she was, and instead focused on her new goal; protecting the rest of these people and making sure they make it through the night alive.

Although, as everyone began to share sorrowful looks, they began to raise their hand in some way, and a majority raised their hands, not their fists. Once the vote finished, Raya turned towards her mother and met her gaze, "It seems they've decided." she told Odelina, who nodded softly and raised her gaze to look at the group of people in front of them

"It seems they have."

That night, the elven survivors headed deep into the forest, further than they'd ever dared to travel until they came upon an area with extremely large trees as well as dense vegetation and decided that would become their new home. The group spent their first night there tending to the wounded, building a quick camp, and finding food to last them through to the next day, at least. The elven people only had about 150 survivors of this attack, and another dozen or so died from their wounds shortly after the attack and injuries following the build of their new home, but Raya and Odelina thrived. The two lead the charge to build their new home and keep morale up, although the morale part was mostly Raya's job, and eventually, after the completion of their new homes, Raya and Odelina were made royalty by the elven people, Odelina queen and Raya their princess; although Raya would one day be queen, should her mother fall. As the years have gone on, their home has grown into a thriving city with closer to 700 people now, although most are not pureblood elves since they would often take in people found around the forest, and now the small kingdom is filled with races of all kinds. The elven kingdom turned into a place for people to take refuge from the horrors of this world, although not easy to find by any means and many die trying to find this place, especially with the multiple illusion spells cast, the magical traps set around, as well as a barrier created against those of the goddess race; which was Odelina's very own special request, just in case.

Now, hundreds upon hundreds of years later, Raya meets an interesting acquaintance.

Raya was much older now and much more mature, which showed in her now fully developed body and facial features; and although her eyes were still as big as they once were, they held more wisdom than her younger self. Along with these developments, more beauty marks had appeared across her face and body over the years, as well as more muscle development after years of hard training, which contributed to her inverted triangle body shape. Currently, Raya was wearing one of her favorite dresses that her mother had bought her from one of the shops in town, paired with a pair of brown mid-calf length boots, and her red hair was loose and occasionally falling into her face as she made her way through the dense forest with the sunlight coming through the trees and warming her pale skin. Although she was on a path that she and her people had created over the years, with each step her bronze locket that hung on a bronze chain bounced back and forth and she absentmindedly reached her scarred hands out and brushed them against the foliage that surrounded her.

But, as she began to climb onto a tree root that was just above her hips, she felt one of her boots slip and nearly fell to the ground, only to feel herself fall into someone's arms. Opening her grey-blue eyes, she met green ones and blinked a few times in an attempt to focus on the face in front of her just as they spoke, "Are you alright?" a male voice asked. As Raya's eyes focused on the person in front of her, she realized that he looked more like a young boy than an adult man, but this wasn't a big deal to her; after all, elves come in all shapes and sizes, especially now. The man had blond hair, and kind of smelled like alcohol, which caused Raya's anxiety to spike as she realized this, unsure if this man was drunk. Raya remained polite though and smiled at the man as she accepted his help standing again,

"Yes, I'm alright. Thank you for the save, but may I ask why you're this far out? There isn't anything out this way." she said with a small smile while she brushed some of her hair behind her ear; that's when the male seemed to notice them and his eyes lit up

"You're an elf? I thought all of them were wiped out during a barbarian raid a long time ago." He asked quickly, then seemed to realize he had done so and recoiled slightly as he glanced away. Raya smiled and nodded, although she could feel her anxiety spike once more

"Yes, I am. Although many of us did not survive that attack, a few of us lived on." she paused as she looked the man up and down, before continuing to speak "You know your history, but you look young. What race are you? Fairy?" she asks with a cross of her arms and a tilt of her head, although the question seemed to make him nervous. The man recovered quickly though from his anxieties and gave a friendly smile

"Let's just say you're right that I'm not human and leave it at that?" he offered with a bit more of a smile, which caused Raya to smile softly in response before she spoke,

"Sure, but may I know your name? I am Raya. " She says as she unfolded her arms and moved to lean her back against the tree root behind her, humming softly. The man watched her for a moment before smiling a bit more and offering her his hand to shake

"Meliodas." He replied in a friendly tone, causing Raya to look down at his hand for a moment, then back to his face as she stepped forward and gently shook his hand,

"Raya." She replied with a smile. Meliodas found himself staring at her hand for a moment as he noticed some rather bad burn scars on the palm of her hand and fingers, although the tops of her hands seemed fine; but before he could ask about it they began hearing shrieking from nearby.

Raya took off running in that direction to see what was going on, unknown to her that Meliodas was following behind her; not that she would have minded anyways, help is help. As Raya approached the source of the shriek she noticed it was a woman with light purple skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair, holding a baby that looked similar to herself, to her chest as she screamed for help from inside a log. Meanwhile, a large cat-like creature clawed at the log and stalked her, starting to break the log apart and getting closer to the woman, who it had decided was her prey. Raya quickly stopped where she was and activated her burst magic as she noticed Meliodas was beside her, but she teleported away just moments after noticing his presence. As the feline brought its massive clawed paw down onto the log, Raya teleported in front of it, even though the beast was easily 4 times the size of Raya, she saw her chance and took it. She punched it in the chest as she released a small burst, blasting the cat into a tree and onto its back, although the feline was quick back onto its feet, and Raya was just as quick to create a burst in each hand and shift her stance, ready for whatever the large cat had in store for her. The creature only growled in response to her actions.

"Meliodas. This is Ismenia and her baby Hashi, would you mind helping her out of the log? I can handle this." Raya said as she glanced at Meliodas, flashing him a smile in the process, only for the creature to take its chance and leap at Raya. She then used her teleportation ability and teleported to the left of the creature and kicked it with both feet in the ribs, only to have to teleport again but this time behind it as it attempted to swat at her with one of its large paws. Raya couldn't help it as she glanced over to check on Ismenia and Hashi, who were being escorted by Meliodas into the forest, only for Hashi to start wailing as he dropped his stuffed toy. This caught the attention of the creature and it turned towards Ismenia and her child as it licked its lips, and Raya felt her heart drop into her stomach at this sight, but she didn't give up. She couldn't. Instead, she threw one of the burst bubbles into the feline's face, which exploded on impact.

"Over here, kitty! I'm your target, not them!" Shouted Raya as she threw the other burst into the cat's face, only for it to let out a bone-chilling roar and charge at Raya, faster than it had moved yet. Raya's eyes went a little wide and she threw herself to the ground in an attempt to dodge, all while attempting to teleport at the same time and closing her eyes.

The teleportation failed, but luckily, the blow she waited for never came. Raya opened her eyes and looked in front of her to see Meliodas in front of her with his back turned to her, but she could see rips in his shirt sleeve and blood dripping down that same arm and immediately she could feel guilt wash over her over, but she quickly pushed it away and stood up quickly to assess the situation. That's when she realized the creature was dead, in a pool of its blood. Raya then turned her attention back to Meliodas and gave him a worried look, "Thank you for the assist, but are you alright? We should get that cleaned and wrapped, no telling what kind of crud that kitty had in his claws." She told him with a nervous smile, attempting to joke around to lighten the mood, which was met with a smile from Meliodas as well as he turned towards her

"It's not a problem! I'll be okay though, but you're probably right about the claws." he replied as he turned his head to look at his wound, frowning softly before muttering, 'Aw..and I really liked this shirt, too.' to himself. Raya couldn't help but let out a few giggles at his words and then smiled at him as she pushed some hair behind her ear,

"Follow me, I'll take you to my home. Your wounds can be tended to there, and I could probably get you another shirt, although not the same one, as our styles vary from those in the outside world." she hummed a bit, continuing to try and lighten the mood as Meliodas nodded softly. She turned her gaze to Ismenia, who was quietly consoling her child as she waved his stuffed bear around, then made her way over. Raya smiled a bit as Hashi let out a happy squeal and grabbed his stuffed bear before shoving it in his mouth, which is when Raya turned her gaze to Ismenia and spoke, "Ismenia, you know these forests are dangerous. Where's your husband Ferentus? Or you could have had a guard come with you, but alone is never an option." she scolded the woman, even though the woman was much older than Raya, and Ismenia lowered her head a bit as she began to speak,

"My dearest apologies Princess Raya, I just wanted to pick some berries for a pie I'm making, I didn't think I'd end up this far out. Thank you and your friend for saving Hashi and me. Will you escort us home?" the woman spoke softly, clearly embarrassed as well as shaken up as she was still shaking from the whole ordeal. Raya nodded her head a bit and smiled softly

"It's alright Ismenia, just be more careful next time. Yes, I will. I'm bringing my... friend, home as well, do you think you could do some healing on his arm? I didn't get a good look, but it didn't look too good." Raya replied to the woman as she glanced to her left as Meliodas joined the conversation.

"Everything alright? How's the baby?" He asked as he moved in front of Hashi and began to make 'funny' faces, which caused the young boy to erupt into giggles and squeals. Raya couldn't help it as she felt a smile slip its way onto her face as she watched this, letting her mind wander for a moment, 'Who is this guy? He killed the Nanix so easily, and yet here he is making faces at a baby, one he doesn't even know. It may be worth my while to befriend him...Besides..he is cu-' She was thinking to herself, only to snap back to reality when Ismenia put a hand on her arm. Raya recoiled in surprise as a gasp left her and her eyes widened, but at the realization that it was just Ismenia, she relaxed and smiled nervously,

"Ah, sorry Ismenia. Got lost in thought. " She said with a small nervous giggle making its way out. Ismenia smiled softly at Raya as she adjusted the baby in her arms as she got ready to respond, but this drew Raya's gaze to the child, "Would you like me to take him for the walk back? I'm sure your arms are exhausted by now, and you know I don't mind, so don't even ask." she said playfully to Ismenia, whose smile grew a bit more and her gaze softened

"That'd be lovely Princess, thank you." Replied Ismenia as she began to hand the small child to Raya, who carefully took the baby into her arms and smiled down at him as she shifted him properly into his arms.

Raya then turned her gaze to Meliodas, who was watching her with a smile and gave a smile of her own,

"How's your arm? Is it still bleeding?" she asked with a tilt of her head. Meliodas shook his head a bit as he continued to smile,

"No, it's alright, I'll be okay for the time being. Let's worry about getting these two home instead." He says as he gave Ismenia a quick smile, only to chuckle softly as Hashi's quiet babbles then turned into a squeal and he grabbed Raya's hair with a yank. Raya hardly reacted to the yank, but on the other hand, beside her, Ismenia looked like she was going to faint in horror at her son's reactions, only relaxing when Raya simply shrugged it off. Raya then turned her gaze to Meliodas as she carefully used her hand to untangle Hashi's much smaller hand from her hair,

"As long as you're alright for now at least, we can return home. Although it isn't far, it also isn't...an easy task. There's some climbing involved, so be ready." She warned Meliodas, although as she spoke, she glanced at his arm to make sure it wasn't bleeding still; and it wasn't. Meliodas nodded a bit in response to her warning with that same smile on his face as usual,

"Don't worry about me, this,-" He began to speak as he lifted his arm slightly and glanced down at it, "-Is nothing, I've had worse. Just focus on yourself, and the kid. " He told her with a bit of a stern voice, which contrasted with a slightly softer look beginning to take over his expression. After Raya stared at him for a long moment in silence before she finally nodded and returned his smile with a small one of her own, and then the group of four headed deeper into the forest, with Raya in the lead as she held baby Hashi with one arm.

Raya made her way through the forest rather easily, jumping from vine to tree trunk, to rock and fallen limbs of trees with no problem after doing it for so many years, but about five minutes into their journey Ismenia was exhausted and had to be carried on the back of Meliodas. Which Raya found visually hilarious due to his short stature; after all, he was just over 5 feet tall. As they made their way throughout the forest Raya was sure to be careful with the infant in her grasp and kept him firmly held against her body to keep from rattling him around or dropping him, all while Meliodas carried Ismenia on his back. He seemed to have a rather easy time keeping up alongside Raya as she leaped from object to object, and occasionally she would grab a vine to swing herself further, all which he did with as much ease as Raya; Although, it did take him a few moments to adjust at first.

As they headed towards what looked like a very dense swamp area, Meliodas swung himself onto a large tree branch and stared down at the swampy area for a moment, and turned to Raya, who landed beside him,

"Is this the right way? Looks like it's swamp from here on." He seemed thoroughly confused as he asked this. Once Raya had a good stance on the branch of the tree, she put her free hand onto the tree trunk to help her keep her balance, then looked to Meliodas with a small smile

"I know it looks that way, but trust me and follow exactly where I go." Raya replied in a cheerful voice as she leaped off the tree branch and grabbed a vine from above and use it to swing herself towards the swamp, "You'll get zapped if you don't!" she shouted to Meliodas as she disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Thats when Meliodas understood it must be an illusion of some kind; hopefully anyways, and after some words of encouragement from Ismenia and a quick internal prep talk to convince himself he wouldn't get Ismenia killed, he leaped off the branch and grabbed the same vine Raya had and swung himself to the same place he had seen Raya disappear to. As soon as he hit where he had seen the cloud come from, he felt like he was passing through something, and then landed on solid ground. As Meliodas looked around, he realized he was in a city now, but one he had never seen before; everywhere he looked there was magic, plants, and things from so long ago he had almost forgotten they existed. It felt magical.

As Raya walked over to Meliodas with a smile, he seemed to come back to reality and turned towards her as a smile made its way onto his face, which caused Raya to smile a bit more, "Surprised? Most people are, when they first see this place." she says with a small hum as she turned her gaze up. All around them were small glowing bugs that lit up the "sky" above them, which in reality was just the space between the ground and the dense foliage above that had become so dense, it was almost as dark as the night sky, even during the day. Around them, the city bustled with life as people went about their day, a city that looked made entirely of stone and wood; but not just normal wood, roots. Although when Raya turned her gaze back to Meliodas, he was in the middle of kneeling to let Ismenia off his back, so she moved over to the two of them to hand sleeping baby Hashi back to his mother, who happily scooped the child into her arms while profusely thanking them both before running off to continue her day.

Although as Raya pushed her hair behind her ear and glanced to the side as she opened her mouth to speak, she stopped short of actually speaking as she noticed some blood dripping from Meliodas's fingers and felt panic surge through her entire body and make her feel numb at the same time. That's when Raya realized she forgot to have Ismenia heal his arm, and that the wound must have opened during their travels through the forest, and she felt a bit of guilt begin to tug at her. She quickly shrugged it off though and focused on getting him help. She stepped in front of him and smiled, "Your wound opened, but don't worry! Home isn't far, and I still plan to keep my promise about getting your wound treated, although-," her smile turned more nervous and her eyes darted to the side, "' I'm not exactly a healer, like Ismenia. My abilities are more used for stealth and fighting, but I do know quite a bit about treating wounds; besides! I can always have a healer come to the house if your wound is bad enough." she finished rambling as she raised her gaze again to look at his face. But as she looked up to see the look on his face, she felt her cheeks go a bit pink at the smile he had; it wasn't quite just a friendly smile, and it made her heart jump into her throat.

But, as their gazes met, he seemed to realize that his expression had changed and reverted his smile back to his normal friendly smile as he nodded softly

"Sounds like a plan. " Meliodas agreed with a bit more of a smile; he was curious about her and this place, and wanted to learn all he could about it, while he could; it's visually fascinating. But before he could get more lost in thought, Raya grabbed his wrist and started pulling him to walk forward, clearly excited,

"Awesome!" She said in a chipper voice, a large smile on her face as she dragged him for a moment. Meliodas was quick to begin walking with her though, so didn't ruin his boots. Although he found himself glancing at her, and then at her hand that was grabbing his wrist before glancing back to her again, just as she glanced at him and immediately looked away and stumbled a bit, which earned her a small chuckle from Meliodas. Raya now refused to look at him as her cheeks had gone pink, and let go of his wrist as she began to awkwardly rub her arm as they continued to walk, now nearing the homing district. 'Way to be weird, Raya..' She thought to herself as the scenery around them became more forest-like and buildings became more sparse until suddenly homes came into view. One large mansion-sized house sat in the middle of a clearing with dozens upon dozen of variously sized houses surrounding it on various levels of land. There were trees as far as the eye could see and giant tree roots all around, even some smaller houses were built on the roots. Although almost no sunlight made it through the trees, everything glowed beautifully due to glowing insects, as well as the glowing flora that had grown on and around the trees and even the houses themselves. Along with the natural glow of nature, there were occasional lanterns along the path to the homes, although some were on vine lamp posts, some were also clipped to the trees around the clearing.

As they reached the top of the hill they were on this all came into view, Raya paused to let Meliodas take in all of the scenery, as most usually did; hell, even Raya liked to sit on the hill and just watch it all. She took a slow, deep breath and looked to the 'sky' above as she watched the glowing bugs dance around, then looked to Meliodas from the corner of her eye and watched him for a moment; he was looking around in amazement, awe, and another emotion Raya just couldn't quite place. With a soft hum leaving Raya, she gently bumped Meliodas's good shoulder with her arm, "As much as I'd like to, we can't stand here all day, we gotta get your arm taken care of. It'll still be hereafter." She told him quietly as she started making her way down the path. She paused and looked back to see him following after her before continuing to head down the path, and before long they were walking beside each other again.

"So you're a princess?" Meliodas asked after a moment, glancing at Raya, who smiled nervously and nodded a bit before speaking,

"I am. I'm the princess of the Kingdom of Trausil, which is where we are. Trausil means 'many' in Nuwuri, our old language." She explained with a small smile as she pushed her hair behind her ear, glancing at him before continuing to speak, "Although I'm not from the original royal bloodline, the people chose my mother as their queen, and made me their princess, and kind of a general." She glanced to the side as she said 'general', saying it softly as well, and feeling a bit of anxiety beginning to creep in as she realized she was probably oversharing; something she was known to do.

"General?" Asked Meliodas as he turned his head to look at her with a small tilt of his head, which caused relief to wash over Raya when she realized he was interested in what she was saying and she wasn't oversharing, although she was still going to be careful on what information she gave him; after all, she had to keep her people safe. Raya couldn't help it though as a small smile slipped its way onto her face and her gaze went to the ground as she spoke,

"Yeah, my dad was the previous general of our people back before the barbarians attacked. After I used what I learned from my father and helped keep people safe, they decided that was the perfect role for me, princess or not." Explained Raya with a small smile, although her eyes showed heavy sadness. But she quickly snapped out of it at Meliodas's next words,

"Wait, you were around back then? Wasn't that about 3,000 years ago?" He asked with a surprised expression, which was immediately followed by him looking her up and down. Raya didn't look at him though and instead focused on reaching her hand out and brushing her hand against a lone, tall flower that was growing alongside the path, carefully touching the petals as they walked past it. Once it was out of reach, she dropped her arm and let out a small sigh,

"Yeah, I was thirteen." Raya said softly-

"Raya, my child, we must escape this place. Do you think you can teleport us out of here? It doesn't have to be far." echoed her mother's voice as a flash image of her world burning around her appeared in her mind, then switched to seeing four-year-old Ogier laying on the floor, unconscious while he wheezed and struggled to get oxygen in, burns on his hands and ash all over his clothes and body-

"Raya?" Called Meliodas's voice as she was suddenly brought back to reality. That's when Raya realized she had stopped walking and her eyes were wide, then moments after that she realized she was shaking. A small nervous laugh left Raya as she loosely folded her arms to hide her trembling hands and looked to the side,

"Sorry, I just got a little lost in thought. That was a rough day." She said softly as she glanced at Meliodas, who was giving her a sympathetic look that was filled with sadness as well, then quickly darted her gaze back to the path in front of them. As Raya's gaze focused, she realized they were only a few feet from the mansion-like home, and now all the details of the home could be seen. Although the home seemed to be built with bricks, it was really built with various sizes of stones, similar to a cobblestone road, while the roof was made with clay shingles, and the internal structure was metal beams; which had been replaced from wood to metal in the last couple hundred years. Plant life had begun to grow on the home, such as moss and vines from the nearby flora, and there was even moss in the cracks of the cobblestone pathway below them and the house had bushes and bunches of flowers growing around it, growing into one large combined plant in some areas.

Raya smiled and turned to Meliodas "This is home! It's mostly just me and mom, but we have a few of the people from the village that work for us for various reasons,-" She stopped suddenly as the front door opened and a woman stood staring at them, she had deep purple hair that was long but braided in intricate designs with some gem pins in her hair, bright orange eyes, and an olive skin tone, her narrow eyes going from Raya to Meliodas, then back to Raya as her eyebrow raised.

"Raya, did you bring another stray home?" Called the voice in an unfriendly and sarcastic tone as her eyes moved back to looking at Meliodas, who smiled in a friendly manner at the woman. Raya sighed softly and rolled her eyes at the woman before speaking,

"No, Lady Mylecent, I brought someone who assisted me in saving one of my people to get his wound treated. Can I do that or must mother know all my business?" Raya fired back in a snippy tone, which caused the purple-haired woman; named Mylecent, to simply sigh and lower her head a bit as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, then she sighed heavily and opened the door more

"I wasn't here." She called back to Raya as she made her way inside the house, which left a confused Raya staring at the empty doorframe for a few moments

"She seems nice." Meliodas joked quietly during the silence, causing a small giggle to leave Raya as she shook her head a bit and turned to him

"She's good at her job, is what she is. She's the home's primary caretaker and overseer, as well as my babysitter now, my mother decided. Her name is Mylecent, I call her Meddling Myle," she turned fully to Meliodas and put a finger to her lips, "But that's a secret, keep it between us?" She says with a smile and a wink as she dropped her finger from her lips, only to smile brightly as Meliodas nodded a bit,

"Consider it kept." He told Raya as he smiled at her, which caused her heart to jump into her throat once again, but she quickly recovered and moved on, now heading for the entrance to the home with a bit of pep in her step. Once she was close to the stairs, she spun around to face him and smiled brightly as she waved him over,

"C'mon! I'll take you to the infirmary, it's not too far." She said as she turned back to the mansion and went inside, but waited for him just inside.

As he went inside and looked around the foyer, he noticed the interior looked bigger than it seemed to be outside, but it was very clean and organized. As soon as you walked in, the ceilings were high and the space was open, and right across from the entrance is a doorway to the stairs, which lead to the upper floors with a few doors on both the left and the right as well, and a majority of the surrounding features were wood. On the ground below was a large emerald green rug that took up a majority of the floor space, and the floor below that was polished wood; it was very obviously newer, compared to the old intricate woodwork in the rest of the room. Along the walls, there was some beautiful art of various kinds of flora, as well as fauna, and some scenery art as well; all in intricate wood frames. There was also one lone table with a bunch of flowers inside a deep forest green and gold vase that was placed on it. Above them was a very large wooden square with lanterns hung in threes along each side, as it was suspended from the ceiling to be their chandelier, and on the left and right sides of that were wood railings, which were a part of the upstairs areas.

Meliodas admired the beauty of the home for a moment, doing a circle around the room as he checked out everything before turning to Raya and smiling,

"This place is beautiful, but it had to be hard to get everything built, with how far out we are from any villages." He said to Raya as a smile made its way onto her face as well and she gave a small nod,

"Some of this place was made with magic, but most of it was a lot of hard labor. All of the original members of Vonnin built this place, all of the 100 of us. Although," Raya had begun to walk to the first door on the left, but stopped and turned to him, "It has had some major upgrades since then, but it's still home." She finished with a smile. This caused Meliodas's smile to grow a bit as well as he made his way over to her, then began to follow her down the hallway, deeper into the home. Although as the two made their way down the hall, the two had very different mentalities; Meliodas focused his efforts on taking in every detail of the walls, doors, floors, everything he could, while Raya kept glancing at Meliodas. 'Does he think it's ugly? Outdated? Does he like it? I wonder how his arm is?' Raya glanced behind them to see if there was any blood trail behind them, and was relieved to find none. She then turned her attention to walking, and glanced at Meliodas again as she felt her anxiety rising once more, 'He probably thinks I'm boring. Or weird, that's a common one. Oh my gods what if he thinks I'm weird!? I mean, I am, but he's cute and- Oh man.. he is cute. Damn it! Why did I have to think that? Now my face is all red! Okay, think of something else? Something else...' She took a deep breath and glanced at Meliodas again, 'He's got a cute bu- STOP IT!' She shook her head a bit to clear the thoughts away and sighed in frustration,

Meanwhile, Meliodas was still looking at everything around him all while lost in his own thoughts, 'I never thought I'd see an elf again, let alone find where the old kingdom had gone and meet a survivor from that time! She's kind of pretty too..' he found himself glancing in Raya's direction as she had her eyes on the hall in front of them, before quickly looking away again so he wouldn't get caught looking at her. He turned his gaze to the wall to his left, as Raya was on his right, and focused on looking at the paintings on the walls, only for his mind to wander once again to the redhead walking beside him, 'Okay, even if she's cute, I shouldn't stay here too long. It'll only make it harder when I do leave...but on the other hand-' He was brought out of his thoughts as a somewhat angry sigh left Raya and turned his head towards her in confusion. Raya noticed his head snap over in her direction and quickly felt her blood rush to her face as she turned her head away a bit and pushed her hair behind her ear again, "Sorry, was lost in thought. It happens a lot." She told Meliodas with a nervous smile on her face, which earned a gentle smile from the male and a small hum in response. Before he could verbally respond though, they reached the end of the hall and Raya opened the large wood door before going inside.

Inside the somewhat large room was an infirmary set up with five beds lining up on the left and right walls that had room dividers between each bed, and a curtain for a door for each makeshift room, while the middle of the room was another room, but this one had walls and just by looks alone you could tell it was the supply room for the infirmary. Once both were inside the room, Raya shut the door behind them and lead him over to the first bed on the right side of the room. She pushed the curtain fully open and turned to him as he moved into the makeshift room and sat on the bed,

"I'm going to head into the supply room and get what I need, stay here." Said Raya as she exited the room, a small hum of agreement leaving Meliodas as she made her way out. She made her way to the supply room and took a key out of a small pocket inside of her boot and used it to unlock the heavy metal door, then went inside the room and grabbed one of the wooden trays, and began to fill the tray up with the necessary items needed for Meliodas's wound.

Once Raya completed her little supply trip, she headed back to room ten; where Meliodas was waiting for her, but as she came around the edge of the curtains she found herself almost dropping her tray at seeing him sitting on the bed, completely shirtless. Although, that's not what surprised her. What surprised her is how muscular he was for his short stature, and she found herself having to catch her tray as her face became a little pink. Raya quickly tore her eyes away from him and smiled nervously before focusing on his face this time,

"Got everything." She said as her expression relaxed and she gave a more normal and friendly smile.

"Thank you, but It's not too bad, I should only need a bandage." He replied with a smile as he started to reach out to grab one, but Raya quickly turned the tray away as he was reaching out and he almost fell off the table, waving his arm for a second before catching himself and properly sitting again. Meliodas looked to Raya with a confused expression as she smiled in return,

"Ah-Ah, I'll treat you. After all, it's the least I can do for you saving my ass earlier, and you carried Ismenia back to our city, so consider yourself a friend of the Kingdom of Trausil." She said with a small hum as she brought her tray over to a portable table beside the bed and set it down on top of the table.

"I'm just a friendly traveler, no need to worry-" Meliodas was cut off as Raya cupped both of his cheeks and turned his face towards her, which caused his cheeks to become a bit warmer. Raya was frowning deeply and huffed softly at Meliodas

"I've already said you are a friend, and your wound will be treated, there is no purpose in arguing this. " She closed her eyes, took a breath, then moved and rested her forehead on his as his cheeks became slightly warmer, but he tried to pretend they weren't, and focused on wondering what was happening. After a long moment of silence, Raya spoke again, "You never let anyone worry about you, you spend all your time worrying about others and helping others that you feel it doesn't matter what happens to you..." Raya's voice had become low and soft, but as she stopped speaking she pulled her head back and opened her eyes, and looked down sadly at him

"But you're a good soul. You deserve happiness and good health just like anyone else, and I sincerely hope you one day find it." She began to smile softly as she slowly slid her hands off his cheeks and stepped back as her smile grew, "So until then, I'll worry about you, and there's nothing you can do about it!" She said in a more playful tone, and Meliodas let those thoughts stew in his head, Raya went to wash her hands so they were clean.

Raya returned a few short minutes later with clean hands and clean towels as she made her way to the tray she had left in the room, then set the towels down on the portable table, beside the tray, and pushed the table over to the left of Meliodas before looking to his wound. Said wound was not only deep but four slashes extended from his shoulder, down to his elbow; and although the wound had begun to scab in some places, it was still bleeding in others and was very obviously dirty. Although as Raya realized the extent of his wound, she gasped softly and stepped closer as she unknowingly raised her hand and gently touched his arm with her fingers. Her fingers then slid down his arm to his elbow before she pulled her hand away and looked at his face with a shocked and angry expression, "You're not fine! You need stitches! No wonder your arm opened, you idiot!" She huffed angrily as she put a hand on his chest and half-shoved him, which almost knocked him off the table. Luckily for Meliodas, he caught himself and gave a somewhat sheepish smile as he glanced away,

"I've had wounds worse th-" He had started to say but Raya huffed

"I do not care if you've had worse, this is bad. I thought it was just a mere scratch! It's likely to be infected with how long it's been open and dirty." She shook her head and turned to her table with supplies and began to get what she needed. First, was medical grade alcohol, a small towel, gauze, and another bottle of clear liquid; which was a mixture of herbs that would clean the wound as well as treat the wound for infection, then turned to Meliodas and moved towards his wound. She found herself pausing and raising her gaze to meet his; since he was watching her this entire time, and gave a small huff as she set the items on the bed behind him, then grabbed the towel and the alcohol before glancing at him again, "This is going to hurt, so get ready." She warned in a soft voice, just above a whisper. Raya glanced at Meliodas once more before gently beginning to clean his wound with the towel, her frown increasing a bit as he sharply inhaled, then let it out slowly; she knew it hurt, but she also knew she had a job to do. So, she decided to distract him from the pain,

"Did you know this house used to be where all of us lived? Every one of us original Vonnin members, all in this house." Raya said in a quiet voice as she worked on continuing to clean his wound, although she glanced up at him as she noticed him shift to look at her

"...Really? How did that work? There were so many people in town and so many homes surrounding this one." He asked, seeming genuinely interested in what she had said, which caused a small smile to appear on Raya's face, only for it to quickly fade as her eyes seemed to lose their life

"Just a few more than one hundred of us survived the barbarian attack. When we fled we had closer to one hundred and fifty, but many gave in to their injuries, and a few dozen of us were lost during the building of our home due to the constant exposure to the elements and wildlife." Her eyes closed for a moment as she took a breath, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. Once she was focused again she set the bloody towel off to the side, with the alcohol, then grabbed the gauze and the herbal solution and poured a small amount onto the gauze before gently dabbing it into Meliodas's wound. This caused a small hiss of pain to leave him at first, but he quickly adjusted and turned to look at her again,

"So how are there so many now?" He asked with a small head tilt, which made a small flicker onto Raya's face for a moment before she began to speak again,

"Well first, we made our home. Once that was complete, we made the surrounding area safe with various spells, traps, enchantments-, Basically anything and everything to keep us safe from the outside world... but People still found us. At first, we sent them all away or allowed the traps to kill them. Soon though, we realized that these people meant no harm. They just want safety, just like we do. They're lost, scared, and usually hungry too, and we decided to start taking them in; after all, we knew those feelings all too well." She continued to explain as she then put the dirty gauze and her solution off to the side and began to get the items needed to stitch up the wounds on his arm, then resumed explaining "At first it was someone every few weeks, we'd find them lost in the forest or stuck in a trap, or sometimes being chased by wildlife; since most everything around here has no fear of people and instead sees them as food-, Anyways," Raya shook her head a bit and cleared everything but her current supplies off the bed, then looked to Meliodas and gestured to lay back, which he did. Once he was settled, she began to carefully stitch his wounds closed, occasionally standing or crouching in odd ways to see properly, and continued her story meanwhile, "More and more people kept coming, those seeking a safe place from the harsh outside world, those lost without purpose, and those who were just simply lost. We took them all in, treated them as equals, and our population began to grow. Over the last few hundred years we've become a bit of a story that many hear, but few believe. Those who believe may seek us out, but only those who are meant to find us, find us." Raya spoke softly as she was finishing up the last few stitches. She found herself pausing to glance to Meliodas, who was watching her, then finished up the story and stitches at the same time, "There's just over 700 of us now, centuries later." She finished her story as she finished the last stitch and stood up and smiled at Meliodas, "Stitches done!" she chirped.

Raya then grabbed some gauze pads and a roll of bandages and began to carefully cover and wrap Meliodas's arm, humming softly, although she found herself pausing to glance up as Meliodas spoke,

"That's amazing." He said in a soft tone, which caught Raya by surprise. A light blush quickly dusted Raya's cheeks as a nervous smile made its way onto her face and she turned her gaze back to his arm and continued to wrap it,

"Yeah, I guess so. We came back from our race being nearly annihilated, which I guess is kind of cool." She said softly as her smile grew a bit more and she tucked the end of the bandage into itself before placing a little clip over it to keep it pinned there. Meliodas next words took Raya by surprise though,

"Kind of cool? You and your mom helped save your race and rebuilt it from the ground up. That's awesome! You're selling yourself short if you don't think it is." He told her with a bright smile as he rolled his shoulder a bit to try and get used to the feeling of the stitches and the bandage, and Raya found herself occupying her hands with cleaning up, instead of agreeing with him. But, he wasn't going to let it go that easily, "You don't think so?" He asked carefully, seeming hesitant to ask the question. Raya nearly dropped the items in her hands as she was halfway across the room, attempting to put stuff in the trash, but she didn't answer right away. She took her time choosing her words and finally with a heavy sigh, she spoke,

"Well..no. Not really. Wouldn't most people do what they could? It's not like I'm some hero or something, I'm just..a weird, silly person." Raya said with a small shrug of her shoulders. She continued her path across the room and threw away the used medical items from the tray, then turned to go back, only to almost run into Meliodas 'How did he get over here so fast? And I didn't even hear his footsteps..' Raya found herself retreating to her thoughts for a moment as she stared at him, then realized he was talking and focused on that,

"But you are a hero. Sure I don't know all the details, but from what you've told me, I'd classify you as a hero. Even if you don't see it. Most people would rather see the world burn than help it, but you're different." His expression shifted to a bit of a softer one as he looked to the ground, "Even if you don't believe in yourself..others do. And if more than one person believes you're a hero, then just maybe, you are." He said as he looked up at her with a bright smile. It took a few moments to process everything he said, and once it did she found herself tearing up a bit and having to turn away quickly; which caused some of her hair to slap Meliodas. He ignored it for the most part though, besides blinking a few times.

After a quiet moment of sniffling from Raya, Meliodas opened his mouth to apologize; he hadn't meant to make her cry, but before he could, Raya turned to him with a tearful expression all while smiling at the same time,

"Sorry, I don't mean to cry. I just..wasn't expecting that." She gave a nervous giggle as she wiped her eyes with her wrists; since her hands still had blood on them, and then looked to him as her smile grew, "Thank you. It means more than you know to hear that." She said softly as a few more tears fell. At first, guilt showed on Meliodas's face as he saw her tears falling, but as she spoke his expression began to relax into a small smile. Although a female voice suddenly cleared their throat from behind them, and both turned and found an older elf woman crossing her arms and staring at Raya; the woman had sharp features with large, bright green eyes and pointed ears as her gray hair was tied back, three braids braided into one braid and she wore a long sleeve green dress that reached her ankles with the shoulders exposed and gold accents and accessories, complete with a pair of simple brown ankle boots.

Raya was quick to turn fully around and huff softly as the woman began to speak,

"Who's this, Raya?" She asked in a suspicious tone as she glanced back to Meliodas, who got off the medical table and made his way over to where Raya stood. The woman watched his movements carefully as Raya began to speak,

"Hello, mother. This is Meliodas. I brought him here to treat his wound after he was injured assisting me in saving one of our people..well, two, actually; Isemnia and Hashi. They are home safe now, no injuries." She said with a small smile as Odelina's gaze shifted back to her daughter. After a long moment of silence, Odelina sighed heavily and nodded a bit

"We will discuss this further tomorrow. Breakfast in my bed chambers tomorrow morning, Raya, we'll discuss then. For now," Her mother paused as she glanced to Meliodas again, "Bring our guest to one of the guest bed chambers, I'll have lady Mylecent leave him some night clothes in chamber seven, as well as anything else he may need until morning." Pausing once again, Odelina turned her gaze to Meliodas and watched him for a moment before continuing to speak, "I'll have breakfast delivered to your chambers in the morning, after Raya and I speak, she will lead you back to the heart of the city. What you do from there is up to you." She finished and looked to Raya; seeming to wait for an objection of some kind, and when none came she simply nodded and left the infirmary.

The two stood in silence for a moment, but Meliodas decided to try to break the silence, but Raya had other ideas and quietly raised her hand and put a finger to her lips as she shifted her stance to lean her ear out of the room a bit. After a few more seconds of silence, the big wooden door to the infirmary could be heard closing, and then it was completely silent. Raya sighed and turned back to Meliodas as she nervously rubbed her arm,

"Sorry about mom, she's become a bit of a hardass over the years. I love her, but she's a bit much sometimes." She says with a small shake of her head. Meliodas chuckled softly at Raya's words before shaking his head a bit as well,

"It's alright, she has her reasons, I'm sure." He told her with a smile, which caused a smile to almost immediately spread across Raya's face, although she quickly looked down to hide it. Meliodas couldn't help but smile as well, tilting his head as Raya looked up and smiled nervously,

"I better get you to your room, otherwise she's going to get meddling Myle after me" She laughed softly as she rubbed her arm, knowing there was truth to her own words. Luckily, Meliodas had no protests and nodded in agreement instead, which allowed Raya to relax a bit.

Raya began to head out of the little makeshift room and into the main infirmary area as she headed for the entrance, and Meliodas followed behind her, and she made sure he did with a quick glance back. Once they were walking beside each other again, Raya glanced at him before speaking,

"So, room seven is right beside my room, which is room eight, technically, back when we first built them anyways." She waved her hand in the air in a dismissal motion before continuing to talk, "But the point is, I'll be nearby if you need anything. In the morning after you eat breakfast, you could go to our garden and check it out! Some of the plants are mine; like the Ithaisy is one, which is a blue flower that looks kind of like a bell but it has red thorns on it too. It's one of my favorites. Don't touch it though, it'll instantly make that body part entirely numb. Found out that one the hard way.." She mumbled the last part as she glanced to the side, earning a small chuckle from Meliodas as they made their way out of the infirmary doors.

"The hard way?" He playfully asked as he looked at her, causing a small huff to leave Raya as she puffed her cheeks out a bit

"I was 16 and it was new so I touched the petals to see how soft they were... I had a magic practice session after that and I had to fight with one arm because the other one was entirely asleep and limp! I swear that the only time I've ever seen Lady Myle smile is when I got blasted back and then my limp arm was used against me." She pouted a bit as she told the story, earning another small chuckle from Meliodas.

The conversation was cut short though as they made it to the bed chambers hall and began to go down it, which filled Meliodas with awe as he came around the corner with the stairs and saw the hallway filled with doors. There were five doors on either side of the hall, but unknown to Meliodas, each bedroom once held up to eight people at a time, and now held a single bed in each one for their guests. Raya glanced at Meliodas with a smile as she watched his expression shift to amazement as he looked at the intricate woodwork of the doors and walls, while the handles were all different. Some were silver while others were bronze or gold, some had gems and others just had designs on them; every single one was different. As they stopped in front of the fourth door on the right, Raya opened the silver door handle that had a single blue gem in the center of it and stepped inside to make sure the bedroom was clean and made up for him. Once she was inside, Meliodas entered the room and began to look around; the room itself was wood walls with deep purple drapes over them in some areas, as well as paintings, while the entire ceiling was painted with a night sky mural and the floor was polished wood with a sapphire blue rug that was under the bed and extended out each way about three feet, while the bed itself was large, thick and decorated with grey silk sheets and a dark purple quilt laid over the top of that, along with a dark blue knit blanket that laid over the bottom half of the bed. Beside the bed were two nightstands made out of dark wood, unlike the lighter wood that was used on the walls and floor; but upon closer inspection, the walls looked like it was roots that had all grown together to form the walls, while the floor was cut wood. In the far left corner of the room was a wooden and black cloth chair with a matching wood and cloth footstool sitting in front of it, with a window beside it, and across from that was a vanity dresser mashup made of the same dark wood as the nightstands while the mirror in it was an oval.

As Meliodas admired the room he did a slow circle in the center of the room as he had his hands in his front pants pockets and gave a whistle as he finished his circle and looked to Raya,

"This is an impressive room, are they all like this? I see all the handles are different, is it the same for the room themes?" He asked with a tilt of his head, causing Raya's expression to light up as she quickly nodded with a smile,

"That's exactly it! Each room is a different theme, and there is twenty-five bed chambers total, although only about ten of them are taken right now. Mine is just after yours, closer to the entrance of this hall, with the bronze doorknob and green gem in the center of the door." She explained as she moved to lean her backside against the dresser part of the vanity and dresser combo, and Meliodas moved to push his hand down on the bed to test it.

"This is a nice bed, too. You guys really went all out." He said as he jumped up onto the bed and dropped back onto it and laid on the bed, laying like a starfish on it as he enjoyed the overall softness of the bed and bedspreads, which earned a small giggle from Raya. She hummed a bit and moved off the dresser and stood up straight as she pushed some hair behind her ear,

"Yeah, we did. But I should get going, after all, you seem comfortable." She joked with a small smile as she headed for the door, pausing though as Meliodas sat up. He leaned his hands back on the bed behind him and gave a lopsided smile,

"Alright, Goodnight, Princess Raya." He said as he gave a small wave as she continued on her way out, only to pause at the doorway before turning back to him and smiling softly,

"Just call me Raya. Goodnight now, Meliodas." She said to him as she left the room and clicked the door shut behind her and sighed. Raya stood for a few moments at his door before going to her own and opening it to retire to her room for the night.

Once inside her own room, Raya locked her door and leaned her head on the door for a few seconds before moving away and turning to look at her room; The room itself was built similarly to room seven, although the drapes on the walls were a deep dark green and the mural on the ceiling was black with fluorescent blue and green bugs and plants painted on it as well, making the ceiling seem to glow, while the rug that covered the floor under her bed was more of forest green and was softer than the one in room seven. Meanwhile, her bed was just as big as room seven and was similarly made up, although this bed had an emerald green quilt and a golden-yellow colored knit blanket laid halfway over the bed. It had similar nightstands and vanity to room seven, but she also had a suit of armor on a human-bodied rack that held the armor together in its complete form, a few potted plants by her window, and instead of a chair in the corner of the room she had a bookshelf filled with books, a mound of blankets, and a few books on the floor.

With a sigh, Raya made her way to her dresser and pulled out a nightgown and men's shorts to wear, then took them to her bed and set them on the bed, but paused as she stared at the blood in the cracks and crevices of her burn scars and felt her mind wander-

"You think you scare me, kid?! I've seen men more than thirty times your size and I have never cowered in fear!" echoed a man's voice as the image of a man appeared in Raya's mind; but not just any man, the man who killed her father. He was on the ground with half of his facing missing as his brains spilled out onto the bricks below him and blood pooled around the head; then there was a bang;

Raya gasped and her hands flew to her face as she stumbled back, only to trip on one of her many books and fall onto her behind with a grunt. She looked around the room wildly for a moment before realizing she was still in her room, and completely okay, and an angry huff left her as she stood up and began to look for the object that may have startled her; that's when she spotted a book on the floor beside her bed and realized that the book she left tucked into the side of her bed from nights previous, had fallen, and that's what startled her. Another heavy sigh left Raya as she got up, "C'mon, get it together.." she mumbled as she picked up the book from her bed up and set it on her nightstand, then made her way over to her vanity where a bowl of water and some towels awaited her.

Dipping one of her towels into the still somewhat warm water, she carefully began to clean the blood off her hands and out of the scars on her palms until she couldn't see any more blood anywhere, then set that towel off to the side and got another clean one and gently set half of it into the water. Once Raya was sure the towel wouldn't slip into the water anymore, she carefully got undressed and then used the towel to quickly clean herself before putting on her nightgown and shorts and then brushing her hair out. Once all this was done, she sat down on the edge of her bed and stared at the floor for a moment as she thought about the events of the day, 'Today was a good day, even if I'm going to get an earful from mom tomorrow. It was nice...Meliodas is nice, I'm glad I met him. I hope we can become good friends one day, he seems so genuine and honest.' She thought to herself as she began to get under her covers and snuggled into her pillows. As Raya heaved a heavy sigh and closed her eyes, she felt herself already beginning to let sleep take over and was out within moments; although she fell asleep with a certain blond in mind.

#meliodas #seven deadly sins #the seven deadly sins #meliodas x oc #short story #oc fanfiction #7ds #7ds oc

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