Two Princes

4. The Wrath of Elizabeth

"You can let go now, Elizabeth."

Cautiously, Elizabeth opens her right eye, gratified to see a safe, concealing curtain of silver bangs behind which she can hide. Yes, hiding is good.

"We're not moving."

Huh? ...Oh. She opens her other eye and glances around; as soon as she realizes he is right, the bike is parked next to a curb, and she is still holding on for dear life, she slowly relaxes her grip around his torso and shakily climbs off, fighting the urge to fall to her knees and worship the solid sidewalk.

"So? How was it? Too much for your first time?" He raises a suggestive eyebrow, and she lets out a tiny squeak as she blushes.

Elizabeth spins around to face the building in front of her, fully prepared to march huffily up the library steps and into the quiet, where Meliodas will have to keep his comments to himself, only to find that...it's not the library? She turns back toward him, her brows knit in confusion. "What are we doing here?"

"I was hungry." He shoves both hands into his pockets coolly and saunters toward the door of the local burger joint. She stares after him, dumbfounded, until he holds the door open and gestures for her to go inside. "You coming?"

It's all she can do to get a grip on her slackened jaw and walk in; Meliodas follows with another smirk, appreciating the view, and lets the door swing closed behind them.

The waitress seats them in a corner booth at the back of the restaurant, well away from the blinding glare of the windows along the front, and Elizabeth is grateful for the seclusion because it minimizes the chance that they will be seen by anybody she knows, and suddenly the horror jolts through her that this looks exactly like a date.

"This is not a date." She glares at Meliodas as she slides into the seat across from him.

He gives her an odd look. "Never said it was. Just getting a bite to eat."

The waitress scribbles down Meliodas' order—one burger with everything, side of fries, and a cherry soda over chocolate ice cream—and Meliodas tries not to gawk as Elizabeth orders the same thing. As the waitress swishes away in her apron and little skirt, Elizabeth looks back at him and raises an eyebrow: "What?"

"You can eat a lot?"

She rolls her blue eyes in exasperation, but underneath the lamp suspended over their table, he notes the light blush that spreads across her cheeks. "Well, you're making me miss dinner tonight, so I'm going to have to eat something."

The next few minutes pass in a somewhat awkward silence; neither seems to know what to say to the other. Finally, Meliodas speaks up. "So. You and Arthur."

What? She tries not to gape, but blinks, bewildered, before quickly reigning in her surprise. "What about me and Arthur?"

He shrugs. "Dunno. How was your birthday?"

"It was good..." The way this conversation—if you can call it that—is heading doesn't seem to make much sense, but, okay... "He bought me flowers, and we went out for dinner, and that's about it."

"Really? That's it? No birthday sex?" His green eyes darken mischievously, and Elizabeth's face burns.

"No! Arthur is a gentleman." Unlike you, she'd like to add.

"What, and I'm not?" Meliodas leans over the table, toward her, and her breath hitches as his eyes lock onto hers in an intense gaze.

She clenches her fists beneath the table and forces herself to look away. "That remains to be seen."

He leans back, smirking. "Sure. While you're having dinner with me, and not him. By the way, doesn't the library close in five minutes?"

Elizabeth widens her eyes and searches desperately for a clock in the restaurant. He's right. It does, and he probably knew that the whole time. "You...you—"

Fortunately, the waitress arrives at that moment, bearing a tray of their food, and Meliodas is saved from the wrath of Elizabeth, as she carefully pours her frustration into devouring the burger placed in front of her.

❤︎

The food brought with it a more relaxed atmosphere, and as Elizabeth and Meliodas chewed their way through burgers and fries, conversation finally began to flow more freely. Elizabeth, at Meliodas' request, told him about her father and her sisters, though when she did not respond when he asked about her mother, he took the opportunity to describe the antics he and his two brothers used to get up to, before he moved away and opened the tavern.

No more mention of Arthur was made, and neither were any references made by Meliodas to any possible exes. The waitress brings their ticket, and Meliodas acquiesces to Elizabeth's insistence that she pay for her own meal. By the time they exit the restaurant, dusk has fallen, bringing with it an unprecedented icy wind, and Meliodas shrugs off his leather jacket and drapes it over Elizabeth's shoulders while she isn't paying attention.

She looks up at him in surprise.

He gives her a softer smile than his usual smirk. "It's cold. You don't have a coat."

"...Thank you."

He slings a leg over the seat of his back, and once he is settled, she again uses his shoulder to balance as she climbs on, and this time doesn't hesitate as long before wrapping her arms around his waist. The ride back to her house is short, and only when he cuts the engine in the driveway does she remember...

"We never even talked about our project!"

"Okay." He grins. "Talk."

She stares at him in disbelief. "Meliodas! I told you how important this was to me, and you promised we would start on it today! You're unbelievable!"

He pouts. "Oh, so because I took you out to dinner and cared whether or not you catch a cold in this weather, I'm unbelievable?"

"I paid for my own dinner!"

"Because you insisted!"

"Ugh!" She takes off the helmet he forced on her, and shoves it into his arms, and then yanks his jacket from around her and thrusts it at him, too. "I will see you in class tomorrow, and damn it you had better have thought about this project, because we are going to spend lunch in the library. Working."

She stalks up the stone steps and through the mansion's front door, seething. A moment of silence passes as he looks at the place where she had just been, before he puts his jacket back on, starts the motorcycle a final time for the night, and drives away.