Chapter Text
“HEY ZELDRIS, WAKE UP TIME!” Zeldris groans as his elder brother, Meliodas —and Meliodas’ acquaintance/pet?— rudely awakens him by shoving open his door and practically screaming in his ear, if one over-exaggerated the circumstances they could say he almost takes the door off the hinges, along with Zeldris’ lasting patience and sanity; “GET UP YOU LAZY BUTTS, COME AND GET YOUR BREAKFAST!” yells the pig, almost squealing at the other housemates' and their room doors. “Jeez’ master, no need to down our ears~” The tall platinum blue haired man named Ban stood —nigh, slouching— in his door frame, accompanied by a much smaller young looking blonde woman with equally golden eyes; she giggles at his response.
Zeldris slowly but surely rises out of his heavenly soft and warm sheets to wash up, do up his almost-shoulder length pitch black hair into a pinkish-magenta headband —a high ponytail if he is/was ever in a good mood— and gets into his work attire, oh how he despises the work attire; The colours aren’t the issue, hell he looks great in pink and navy, but the problem is.. the skimpy-ness, Zeldris isn’t one to slut-shame, the exact opposite in fact, it’s just for someone of his age and stature it just isn’t quite…Food establishment friendly; the short, deep-navy skirt barely covers his rear, so much in fact whenever he would try to bend down he would completely flash anyone behind him, even worse is that he doesn’t get a complementary pair of tights to at least give him a shroud of dignity for himself. The top is bad as well; a frilly button-up, pinkish-magenta sleeveless crop top with a chest window covered with a deep navy handkerchief the same colour as the skirt. The ‘uniform’ was accompanied by a singular black thigh-high sock with mitch-matching black and white flats. He has and will always feel gross and sexualized whenever he puts on his uniform, he doesn’t even get paid; but it's payback for all the shit that happened in the past; Zeldris is still shocked and astonished that he was the problem, not his embarrassing pervert of an elder brother.
After Zeldris soberly waltzes down the stairs and quietly eats his breakfast the best he can with a side of small talk and chit-chat amongst the staff, —he always has the strangest and best conversations with the mascot/pet pig, Hawk— his shift begins. It’s the usual customers as always in The Boar Hat Tavern, though he will admit as much as anyone else; god do they get drunk here. Loud intoxicated voices asking —or more accurately demanding— for more booze and food at their table(s). Zeldris hates any form of alcohol, he prefers tea himself as a matter of fact, and he finds it ironic to work in a very alcohol based establishment and has and always will find his job sexist; the women do the waitressing in skimpy clothing while most of the guys just sit around and drink —dressing like they’re almost ready for fall-like conditions—, hell their main cook Ban guzzles down ale before almost all of his shifts. Some like Zeldris and Gowther —who are the only male ‘waitresses’— do their assigned jobs, but Gowther usually just sits or stands and drinks like the others like his shared torturous and embarrassing ‘uniform’ is just for show; This always makes Zeldris feel fairly infuriated at his fellow colleagues for doing nothing and barely lifting a finger, making the main three waitresses do all of the literal manhandling; Zeldris being one of them, includes two young women named Elizabeth and Diane. Shifts are always long and painful, Zeldris gets the brute of it, being unwillingly hit on by patrons and/or getting his skirt lifted by some handsy drunkard, by which he always has a tray in hand just for moments like that, but Zeldris will be the first one to admit to being the one to break up most conflicts amongst piss-drunk patrons and apologetic Elizabeth —which will almost always result in said piss-drunk patrons getting booted out of the door—.
After his shift, Zeldris goes out on the town as he usually does in his average —and favourite— attire; sporting a long poofy deep-navy royal maid dress leaving the headwear, white tights (thank god), and his usual black shoes with grey shoe material in the center of the toe cap with black stitching in the middle to imitate a cloven-hoof look, with his signature long-sword and scabbard on his left hip, ready to be used at any given chance. Along with his hair done up in a small, high side ponytail and subtle makeup he joyfully does himself. He holds so much joy in the outfit, not only was it a gift from Elizabeth —the third princess of Liones— but it was also a gift from an unlikely friend of which he cherishes. Even before his alliance and residence with the humans of Britannia, he was mistaken for a girl back ‘home’ when he was younger, even by his elder brother and tutor.
“Hey, Zeldris!” Zeldris looks up to see a tall figure, taller than Ban even —easily over 7 foot— sitting on a wall-like fence that protects the castle garden, as his scruffy white hair just past his chest slightly rustle in the warm young spring breeze that highlights his muscular build under his signature knee-length, button-down coat and his unwrinkled off-white bell-bottom pants and sandals. “Hello Mael. How’s your day been treating you?” Zeldris has always felt a sense of allurement to Mael, ever since they ended up as friends; but only recently has Zeldris started to realize the slightest tinge of blush on his cheeks whenever around the man.
As Zeldris starts up the wall to sit next to Mael, attempting to keep his outfit pristine despite the silk-cotton material sticking and latching to any foreign wall debris.
“Do you ever feel like you owe the world an apology, Zel?” Mael looks sombrely onto the mid noon sun, his tone changing drastically from before. As Zeldris manages to hobble himself onto the top of the wall; Zeldris of course is faint of breath and full of wonder for the sudden ice breaker, not only had he called him ‘Zel’ but also struck at the guilt and distaste for his actions almost four months ago in agonizing silence waiting for some kind of response; “Uhm, I’ve never thought about it like that before, but.. when you mention everything before.. y’know.. I guess you’re right in a sense; Sure Meliodas and the others ‘forgive’ our actions but I feel like something is missing from it all, y’know?” Zeldris is tempted with a fair bit of joy for Mael’s sign of friendliness and awareness of their allyship, but is surprised to hear him hit so close to home, usually their talks would last long —hours even— but they’ve never tried to make such serious hot-takes, especially since some denizens of Britannia are still shaken up and demented against the demon race as a whole. “Sometimes I tell myself that I should take a long journey across Britannia and asist the towns and villages as a way of showing sympathy and kindness for all the destruction we- er- I caused.” Zeldris looked up at Mael as he got his finished point across to witness his reaction, but all he saw on his face was an understanding and unvoiced agreement;
Zeldris has hardly ever —never possibly— in his life had any sort of close friendly encounters before his residence in Liones, so seeing someone agree with his perception of the past and present makes him feel very special in a way, like he is finally accepted as one of the main fray. “Yeah, I really like that Zeldris, I personally could never do it myself out of lack-there-of courage and other problems and issues, but I could personally see you do that, you’re stronger than I ever was at your age.” Mael nodding in agreement as Zeldris realizes how much time has really passed since their starter greetings; “Oh God's Mael, look at the sun, it’s setting already, my night-shift will start soon. Let’s head back together, alright?” “Alright, I’ll walk with you, god knows what kind of people walk around at this hour.”
“Do you ever feel like you owe the world an apology?” “Take a long journey across Britannia.”. Ever since those two dreaded lines were muttered between the two boys they’ve been stuck in Zeldris’ head, tossing and turning in his bed trying to make sense of what step he should take next; Zeldris decides to get out of bed and head downstairs to the main room/tavern area to prepare some herbal tea since sleep stopped being an option ever since he decided to push it back to the back of his mind to focus more on his night-shift than anything else.