The Ten Commandments had been defeated, and with their demise, the new Holy War had come to an end. Despite the celebrated victory of the Seven Deadly Sins and their allies, there were lives lost and homes crumbled, and the future did not shine brightly for everyone.

For the Sven Deadly Sins, the newfound peace resulted in a sudden vanish of purpose. Liones and Camelot respectively had their own Holy Knights fit to protect the kingdom and its inhabitants from any low-level threat that might arise from the ashes of the crumbled Demon Clan. There was no longer need for a group of sentenced criminals with remarkable but to the commoner inexplicable powers.

And so, followed the dismemberment of the famed Seven Deadly Sins.

Their Captain, Meliodas, was the first one to leave, only two days after the grand celebration and subsequent honoring of their team. Diane could not even be mad with him. The fight against his brother, Zeldris, seemed to have taken its toll on not only his body but his spirit as well. She had never seen the Captain as exhausted as when all his composure had fallen away, and he had bid the team farewell, only supported by Elizabeth's hand holding his own.

Diane hoped from the bottom of her heart that their suffering had finally been brought to an end. No one deserved it as much as they did. When she tried to, Diane was able to imagine the two of them living in a small tavern on a hill, always embraced in the presence of each other, and the thought warmed her spirit.

Without their Captain, the team didn't last very long, and everything fell apart in a rush. Merlin headed to Camelot, Ban headed to seemingly nowhere in particular, and Escanor decided to stay in Liones Capital to form and train the following generation of Holy Knights, on behalf of King Bartra.

So when King asked her if she would want to join him on his way home, to the Fairy King's Forest, Diane had no reason to hesitate. There was nothing left binding her to Liones, to the world that would once more belong to the humans. And there was no one else who she rather wanted to be with.

The way his face lit up, rivalling the star filled sky above, was reminding her of a time long gone, when there had been nothing to worry about and no war to be fought. Diane believed wholeheartedly that the future could be just like those days.

They decided to leave the very next day during the early morning hours, where the town was still asleep, caught up in blissful dreams of what was and what would be. There were only two other souls present from whom the Fairy and Giant had yet to part. Escanor was already wearing his new armor bearing the two winged horses forming the coat-of-arms of Liones, the metal reflecting the light like a small sun of its own.

"I expect both of you to come and awe at the new Holy Knights once they have been trained by me," the Sin of Pride declared, his demeanor befitting his title. With a little help from his Sacred Treasure, Rhitta, he already possessed his daytime form, despite the early hour.

"We'll make sure of it, Escanor," Diane answered for King and herself, putting on a smile.

Escanor nodded his head, seemingly satisfied with the response, and proceeded to pat King on the shoulder, resulting in a pained outcry from the Fairy.

Diane shifted her gaze down towards Gowther, who had been standing silently in Escanor's shadow. The clouds darkening his mind were almost visible as he avoided any eye contact.

"Gowther –," Diane began, but was instantly interrupted by him.

"You two do not need to go, you know?" Gowther said, his eyes still fixed on the distant horizon, where the sun was slowly climbing its way up over the sky. "There is no need to break the team apart in such absolute manner."

It pained Diane to see him like this. In the past weeks, Gowther had become more than just a comrade to her, she had started to consider him a dear friend. And he himself had opened up to the team as well, trying his best to connect. And yet, Diane had not even considered how Gowther must have felt about the end of their journey and their group.

This time it was King who found the right words. "Hey Gowther, this is no goodbye for forever. You'll finally have time to read all the books you wanted, and when Sir Gilthunder and Lady Margaret move forward with their plans, we will definitely come back for that as well. And you can visit us any time you like, okay?"

With these words, King now floated right in front of Gowther and, after a short hesitation, went on to give him a hug. Overwhelmed with emotions, Diane wanted to join in right away but decided, due to a lack of better options, to simply pick both of them up with her hands and hold them closer.

When she let both of them go, Gowther had almost lost his glasses, and King's face was still showing a shade of red.

"We should get going," the Fairy King mumbled, tempted to hide his face in Chastifol's pillow-form in a flash of old habit.

"Alright!" Diane replied cheerfully, sending the other two Sins a wink, before heading towards the Fairy King's Forest, her beloved King by her side.

It seemed the colors all around them shined more brightly with each step they took as spring settled in.

~ : ~

The sun seemed to never set on the Fairy King's Forest and time could only be measured by the events unfolding outside of it. King and Diane revisited the kingdom of Liones for Gilthunder's wedding with Margaret – where Diane teased the Fairy King by accepting a dance with his personal arch-enemy, Howzer – and later to celebrate the birth of the royal heir, Hector. But for the longest time King and Diane just lived in blissful ignorance of the world around them, living through days that seamlessly blended into each other. There was no war to fight and no goal to work towards, simply living in the moment for a small eternity.

Diane told herself she couldn't possibly be happier, but every now and then her very core ached in a faint pain that she could neither understand nor explain.

The feeling returned one day while she was walking beside King who wanted to show her another favorite place of his. Sunlight filtered through a ceiling made out of the crowns of countless enormous trees, casting the path in front of them in the familiar green light that Diane now associated so strongly with the Forest. The comforting rustling of the leaves all around her almost completely covered the faint murmur, but Diane noticed it nonetheless. She stopped in her tracks and soon enough managed to spot three Fairies, hidden behind the branches of a nearby tree. One of them, a young female yet to grow wings, made round eyes as she realized that they had been spotted.

"Diane?" King's voice called, but her concentration was fixed on the group of Fairies, who looked at her with a mixture of embarrassment and terror.

King, who had floated closer, now noticed the group as well.

"Why don't you give up hiding and show yourself?" His voice sounded harder than usual.

One by one, the three Fairies left their hiding spot and stopped in front of the Fairy King. The one who had been looking at Diane with panic never took her gaze of the Giant, as if to examine every last detail of her. The other two, one male the other female, focused on their feet, ashamed. King remained silent for a moment, and the feeling of discomfort within Diane grew.

"Now go. I don't want to see you spying on other people again."

"Yes, Fairy King Harlequin," the male Fairy answered weakly. He and his winged fellow retreated in the general direction of the Sacred Tree, but the younger one stayed firm.

After a few seconds, she swiftly turned away from Diane to look at King.

"Why is there a Giant in the Fairy Realm when there should only be Fairies here?"

The question echoed through Diane's mind like a choir of voices, desperate to tell her something she couldn't understand. When she regained a minimum of composure, she turned to see King frozen as well. He seemed to fight an internal battle, until the tension released and he turned once more to the younger Fairy.

"What is your name?" he asked. His tone gave no hint on what he was feeling.

"Freya."

"Freya, Diane is not only allowed to stay here as long as she wants to, I myself invited her. The Fairy King's Forest no longer needs to be isolated from the rest of the world, now that the war is over. And even if we still needed to be this careful, I would trust Diane not just with my own life but with the entirety of the Fairy Clan." He paused for a moment. To let his words sink in or because he realized the impact of what he just said, Diane wasn't sure. "I don't want to ever hear of this again," he concluded. Freya only nodded in wide-eyed confirmation and proceeded to follow the other two Fairies.

Diane studied King's face again, but for once she could read no emotions from it.

"Are they afraid of me?" He only clenched his fists. "I know you read all their hearts, and don't try to deny it. So, what was it? Where they afraid? Or do they just reject me because I'm a Giant?" She didn't intend for her voice to become this shrill, but at least it caused a reaction on King's face, now filled with sorrow. She knew she had been dead right.

There it was again, the feeling of being out-of-place, of not belonging anywhere at all. The desire to be smaller, simply to not be so different. Diane had harnessed these feelings whenever she was around humans, but she had thought that the wound had healed. Only to discover that the aching never went away completely.

"Maybe I should just shrink to human size with the bracelet Merlin gave to me. Then I wouldn't stick out as much." Diane tried to sound careless while twirling a strand of hair around her finger. There was no point in dwelling on the problem, for it would only cause pain for both of them. And that was the last thing Diane wanted.

"No." King's response broke her train of thought immediately. He locked eyes with her and started to close the gap between them.

"You shouldn't need to change anything about you because of what others think. Please… don't ever change who you are or who you want to be like. D-Diane you are the most –"

With every word he said, Diane moved closer to the point where their faces were only inches apart, and King could no longer concentrate on what he was saying. His cheeks were burning red.

Diane flashed him a bright smile. "You really haven't changed at all."

"W-What is that supposed to mean?" he demanded to know. Once more, he was absolutely clueless as to what he had done for her.

It had always been this way, whenever Diane was feeling down, Harlequin had been there to cheer her up and make the world feel a little brighter. Nothing about that had changed since she had been a child, walking by the riverside to look for food only to find him instead.

She gave Harlequin another smile, to chase away his indignant expression. "Wasn't there something you wanted to show me?"

"Yeah, you're right," he answered cheerfully yet a little confused.

The clouds darkening the day had disappeared with almost no trace left of them ever being there at all. They continued their walk as if nothing ever happened.

Within a few minutes they reached their destination, or at least what Diane suspected to be their destination.

A small lake, its water so dark and clear it almost seemed unnatural, surrounded by ancient copper beeches. Despite the faint murmur of the water and the whispers of the rustling leaves, the place was cast in a mantle of silence. But it wasn't a silence that made one feel uneasy or desperate to fill with words. Rather, the place felt safe and secure and entirely distant from the world outside, an ancient sanctuary forgotten to everyone else.

She felt King shift a little beside her, unsure of her reaction to the secret place of his. Diane couldn't help but wonder if he had ever shown it to someone else.

"It's wonderful," she breathed out, scared of the noise her voice would cause.

He was no longer looking at the lake but at her, as if he had just found something marvelous to which the quiet beauty of their surroundings paled in comparison. For a moment she bathed in the awe his face expressed and felt the silence wash over her with a gentle touch. Then Harlequin snapped out of his trance.

"I'm glad you like it." His voice sounded hoarse as if he hadn't made use of it in some time.

They sat down close to the shore, and if the reflection of the sun had not moved over the water, they might have been unable to tell if any time had passed at all. There was no need for words, for their minds were at peace, at least for a little while.

Diane was reminded once more of how glad she was to be here, with Harlequin, in the Fairy King's Forest. She would not have known where else to go. Sure, Drole had told her she could change the Giant Clan for the better, possibly even as their leader, but Diane had left her people for a reason. Their culture, their very essence of being, revolved around fighting, and, even if there was a way to change that, Diane feared she would just destroy the identity of her own race. She herself might welcome the change, but others should not be forced to alter themselves or their ideals. Just like Harlequin said.

No, leaving them be was the best decision to make, she believed. And she wanted King to know that.

"I'm so happy you asked me that day to come with you," Diane said, breaking the silence surrounding them. "I want you to know that. For all the mistakes I made, the decision to go with you wasn't one of them."

She expected him to be relieved, or at least show any reaction at all, but he seemed entirely distant, playing around with his own thoughts absentmindedly. The moment lasted longer and longer, to the point where she was almost going to repeat her words. Only then he finally spoke.

"I can't think of any mistakes you made." His smile never reached his eyes. "I – I made so many I can't count them anymore. And I broke promises, too. I gave the burden of protecting the Fairy King's Forest to Elaine, and then I wasn't even there when it was destroyed and she was –"

She didn't want to see him punishing himself like that. King might have made mistakes, and some of them might have even been followed by dire consequences, but he always made up for them. He had carried the guilt of his actions for far too long.

"King, you –"

"And I left you, too."

She looked down at him and found him staring at her. Violet-colored eyes met those of amber, the latter drowning in a sea of regret, forming tears unable to break out. His sudden hurt shook her to her very core, and she wanted nothing more than for his suffering to disappear or at least for him to express it with words, so she could say something in response, to make him feel better at all costs.

"I left you without even saying goodbye. And I – I erased your memories. Back then it felt like the only option I had. But it was wrong to do this to you. All I've ever done was mess things up and hurt the ones closest to me." The distress spoke from his voice in unrivalled intensity. "All I can do is apologize."

Through his words, Diane finally understood what pained him so much and why he had been so distant since they had come here. She realized he had planned to tell her this for a while now, but had always been unable to face the consequences. He must have believed she would hate him now. But really, he couldn't be farther from the truth.

"I know why you did it." She tried to force the tears away from her voice. "You did it for me. Because I was just a child, and without you I wouldn't have known where to go. Without these memories, I was able to return to the Giant Clan."

At last, her voice broke from the trembling that had started to shake her whole body. Just now it dawned to her what King had meant with his words and what consequences arose from this revelation. He had taken her most precious memories away from her – and she could not even be mad with him.

"You're right, I told myself I'd done it for you." He caught her gaze with such an intensity she felt unable to turn away, and her mind was only fixated on him. "But I also did it because I couldn't stand the thought of breaking another promise. I told you I would always be by your side. It was the most important promise I've ever made – and I still failed you." He trailed off.

Diane was touched by his honesty. Of course, she wished he had opened up to her earlier to prevent her from wondering what had caused her to forget. But seeing him broken down so entirely, fearing the worst to come from her; it only made her more grateful for having met him all those years ago.

She reached out with one finger to carefully rest against his cheek, at last wet with tears. "But you didn't break your promise. You are here with me now, aren't you?"

Through his silent shaking, she closed the gap between them, until she was holding him in her hands, one cheek resting against his hair.

"King, I could never hate you for what you did. What else can I say to make you trust me?", she whispered, her voice only audible to him.

It took a while until one of them moved again to break the spell, but the bond remained, linking them together, inseparable for far longer than this one moment.

"You are the most important thing to me, and if you let me try, I will never break a promise to you ever again", Harlequin said, finally able to face her again. The tears had dried from his voice, and this time his smile was genuine.

"You don't have to make any more promises to me," Diane answered just as strongly. "I already know how much you mean what you said."

There was no more need for words, for they had grown closer together than ever before, two parts of one soul, with no secrets between them, and it remained this way for the coming years. Where they lived and breathed under the security of the Sacred Tree and where time was immeasurable once more. They sometimes visited the secret lake, and to both of them it came to be a place made for and only ever known by the two of them. And with the seasons passing them by unnoticed, their time with the Seven Deadly Sins grew ever so distant to them, like the last remnants of morning dew on a summer's day.