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Elizabeth was used to people staring at her occasionally whenever she left the house, but this was taking it to a whole new level. Indeliberately, she had found herself surrounded by a group of excitable, wrangly men and she wasn’t quite sure as to how to lose their attention. “Um, do you mind telling me why you’re all staring at me?” she asked awkwardly.
Most of the men seated near her in the stands quickly turned away embarrassedly and red in the face. A few were still gawking at her presence making her shift slightly in her seat. She glanced down at herself thinking that she perhaps had a stain on her white dress or a piece of food stuck in her teeth but neither was the case. After checking to see that her purple tie was still in its place, she closed her hand-held mirror and returned it to her purse. She slowly pondered over the thought before deciding to let it go and look across the room while scanning the crowds on the off-chance that she could find a familiar face.
She highly doubted that anyone from her university would be at this event alongside her. After all, the event was offered exclusively to those by invitation only and she was about an hour away from her university campus in a room full of sports fans. She had not planned on attending the event alone, but her sisters were rather preoccupied. Veronica was still ill from entering an all-you-can-eat pie-eating contest the previous weekend and Margaret had promised to take care of her until she was fully recovered.
Elizabeth was hoping to have her sisters by her side to finally meet the man she was seeing, but she contented herself with the thought that there would be many more opportunities in the future for them to become acquainted.
She was almost done with her scan of the people in the room when her eyes landed on a messy quiff of dark, blonde hair belonging to a semi-familiar figure two rows below her. Quickly angling her head so that she could get a better view of him, Elizabeth was able to quickly identify the man in question.
She stood up to wave at the man with one arm while simultaneously holding the end of her dress down with the other. “Howzer!” she yelled, trying to grab his attention.
She could see that he had heard her because he was turning his head around to look at the people seated nearby him to find the voice calling out to him, but he did not look up at Elizabeth. Elizabeth figured she’d try again. After all, having more friends around her during the fight would make it more enjoyable in between the different matches.
“Howzer!” This time the blonde-headed man made eye contact with her and smiled. Elizabeth smiled in return and gestured to him that he come and join her. He nodded his head in agreeance and she watched as he grabbed his things and slid into her row with no hesitation. Howser gave her a quick side hug before plopping himself into the empty seat beside her.
“Wow, Elizabeth! It’s so good to see you here. How did you manage to find any tickets for the event?” Howzer asked bewilderedly. He asked her in good fashion and she responded in kind.
“A good friend of mine gifted them to me.” Elizabeth teased. “He’s participating tonight and I came to support him.”
“Oh really?” Howzer looked down at the stage with wonder and glanced at her questionably. “I don’t mean to doubt you, but I must say it’s very unexpected to see you at this match. By any chance, is Gilthunder escorting you?” Howzer asked looking around for his friend.
Elizabeth chuckled. She had expected a similar response from her sisters but Howzer’s confusion was amusing to her.
“Sadly,” she began, “neither my sisters nor Gilthunder were able to attend with me although I did offer them the opportunity.” Howzer was an old childhood friend of hers. She had met him through Gilthunder, her brother-in-law and Margaret’s husband, when they came over one afternoon to play princesses and knights together as kids.
Looking at him now, nothing much had changed between the childhood persona and the adult man sitting at her side. He seemed giddish and appeared to be very excited for the upcoming match. Elizabeth wondered if he would know who her dear companion was whenever he took to the stage momentarily.
Howser nodded at her answer and slowed his movements.
“Elizabeth, do you understand much about boxing?” He asked suddenly.
Elizabeth blinked and smiled sheepishly. “They hit each other until one falls out of the ring, right?”
He nodded again and patted her on the back in congratulations. “Yessiree, I’m pleased to know that you’ll be able to follow along with the match. Was it your friend who explained the rules?”
“Yes. He made it very clear to me how important it was for him that I be here to cheer him on.”
“Say Elizabeth, who is your friend? Perhaps I know him.”
“Meliodas.”
At the mention of Meliodas’ name, Howser grew quiet and looked contemplatively at the ring below them. His face contorted into a deep frown and Elizabeth wondered if they were on bad terms with one another for her childhood friend to have that type of expression. She was going to question Howser when he interrupted her.
“Meliodas….Hm, I can’t recall a fighter with that name. Is that by chance his real name? Do you know what name he goes by at his matches?” Howser was grasping at the back of his neck nervously.
“Unfortunately not, but I can point him out once he comes out on stage.” Elizabeth offered weakly. She breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he did not have any issues with her beloved and was probably feeling embarrassed for not knowing a fighter’s name.
The arena lights turned off at that moment and the main stage lights were pointing at the ring. There were two, separate lights pointed away from the ring at either end of the arena leading to huge hallways in both directions. Possibly to the dressing rooms of Meliodas and the other fighters , Elizabeth thought to herself.
The speakers in the auditorium started blaring trumpet noises to announce the arrival of the first two competitors. Elizabeth was holding her breath in anticipation of seeing Meliodas but the first man to walk out was someone foreign to her.
He had a build similar to Howser’s but his hair was white and he had a white beard as well. The fighter coming in from the other side of the arena was stockier and slightly taller. This man had long, flowing brown hair that went to the end of his back.
To Elizabeth, Howser had appeared quite entranced with the arrival of the new competitors but his next words surprised her.
“Elizabeth, would you mind telling me about how you and Meliodas met? Hendrickson and Dreyfus are evenly matched so we might be waiting here for a while.”
Elizabeth had not been planning on attending Gilthunder’s baseball game with Margaret but her university professor had an unfortunate accident and moved the date of her exam. This left the white-haired Elizabeth with more time to study than necessary so she opted to join her sister and brother-in-law for a fun excursion. After all, who could say no to free hot dogs when Margaret was paying?
“Ellie, are you hungry yet? I forgot to pack some snacks in my bag before we left.” Margaret said frowning.
The two sisters were seated in the front of the bleachers to catch a good view of Gilthunder who was pitching on the field. Margaret had worn her matching jersey and shorts. Her long, purple hair was let down but the sunglasses atop her head were preventing any stray hairs from falling onto her face. Elizabeth dressed similarly to her sister in a t-shirt and shorts but she had her hair tied up in a ponytail so she could wear her baseball cap and block out the sun.
Elizabeth glanced at her older sister and decided to tease her.
“Oh no,” she cried dramatically. “I’m starving! I could eat five hot dogs right now...if only I had the money to afford them.” She ended her fake plea with flair by exasperating and placing her hands across her forehead as if fainting.
Margaret shoved Elizabeth out of her pose and flicked her forehead.
“Oh hush, Ellie. I asked if you were hungry, not dying.”
“I might as well be,” Elizabeth answered solemnly, continuing her act.
“Fine, but don’t say I don’t love you after this.” Margaret handed Elizabeth some cash and shooed her away to find the hot dog vendor. Elizabeth had tried searching for the vendor in the bleachers but could not find them. She walked to the opposite side of the field where the opposing team’s visitors were watching the game but the vendor was nowhere to be found.
Elizabeth was about to head back with Margaret when her stomach began to rumble. Glancing down and sighing, she decided it was now her mission to find the vendor and buy everything they had to offer.
The white-haired beauty found herself walking aimlessly around the area until she caught a glimpse of charred smoke from the parking lot. With hope in her heart, she quickly skipped across the lot to find a blonde-haired kid behind the grill instead of the vendor.
Unsure of herself, Elizabeth rounded the hotdog cart and stood in front of the sign reading “HOT DOGS” just to be sure that she was in the right place.
The kid behind the hotdog cart grinned up at her and laughed. She straightened herself and looked at him curiously. Upon closer examination, she could tell that the vendor was no kid and was rather a young man. A very handsome man who was still laughing at her.
She placed a hand on her hip and looked at him questioningly. “Why are you laughing?” She asked.
“You’re not the first person to try reading the sign today. Do I really look that young?” The mystery vendor was teasing her, but she had to admit that she liked it. She decided to play along.
“Hm,” she said crossing her arms, “Turn around for me and we’ll see.”
He gaped at her while blushing and she realized how suggestive her comment had sounded. A blush was starting to form on her own face and the thought of returning to Margaret with no hot dogs was tempting, but she stood resolute in her stance.
Slowly, he started turning in a circle and even flexed to prove himself to her. He was shorter than her but that didn’t matter to her. She could see the well-defined muscles under his shirt as he flexed and she could only imagine what they could do when wrapped around her. She quickly shook the thought out of her head as he returned to his station and replaced his apron.
Fully red in the face now, Elizabeth tried to fan herself subtly. Unfortunately for her, he seemed to notice and smirked at her. She was caught in quite the predicament. She could either continue her conversation with the mystery vendor or risk returning to Margaret with no food...the thought of her angry sister rebuking her in public after the torment of her conversation with the blonde man was too much for her.
Taking pity on her, the blonde man with green - no, emerald - eyes laid out his hand for her to take.
“Meliodas,” he offered with a smile. “My name is Meliodas.”
She shook his hand and she could swear that she felt sparks shoot up her arm. Taking her hand back, she offered him a shy smile. “I’m Elizabeth.” She could swear that his eyes were shining even more brightly than before.
“So,” Meliodas said breaking her out of her trance, “What can I do for you, Elizabeth?”
She remembered the purpose of her trip and glanced at the time. Gilthunder’s game was nearly over by now. Margaret would have her head if she didn’t arrive with enough hot dogs to share.
“Uh, I’ll buy every hot dog available, please.”
Her words seemed to surprise him once again because his eyes were wide and he was giving her a look of incredulity.
“Are you sure?” He asked. She nodded and placed the wad of cash her sister had given her onto the cart.
“Yes,” Elizabeth said embarrassedly. After preparing everything in a to-go box for her, he took out a pen and wrote a number on a piece of paper before placing it on top of the box. Elizabeth skimmed over it quickly, but it looked like a phone number. Could he have -...?
Meliodas answered her question. “That’s my number. Call me whenever you want.”
Normally, she’d never pay attention to guys who handed her their numbers, but she’d make an exception for Meliodas.
“Of course,” she said with a smile. She was looking forward to her next meeting with him.
Elizabeth hadn't expected Howzer to be super enthralled with her story of meeting with Meliodas, but she also wasn’t expecting him to be checking fighters off of a program flyer to try and narrow down the contenders.
Unfortunately for the pair of friends, the program offered no pictures of the fighters and only had stage names belonging to the competitors.
“U-um are you sure this is necessary?” Elizabeth asked after Howzer crossed off the tenth name.
“Yes,” he said determinedly. “You’re family to me and it’s part of my job to make sure that you’re with a nice guy and not some random meathead from the ring.”
Elizabeth wanted to assure him that her relationship with Meliodas was far from what he had described but he had already returned to crossing off other fighters’ names. Her attention was drawn to the ring in the next moment, however, when the arena music came back on. That was the signal for another fight to begin.
As she was recalling the story of how she and Meliodas had met, the boxing matches proceeded as usual in the background. Howzer, who was usually more interested in watching these matches, was much more invested in finding out who Elizabeth’s mystery friend was. From the fondness in her voice, as she spoke of Meliodas, Howzer could tell that there was more to their relationship than what the white-haired beauty let on but he didn’t want to pressure her any further to divulge information.
Looking at the program in his hand, Howzer gasped. There were only two names left on his list and they belonged to two of the most fearsome boxers in the world. The Dragon Sin of Wrath and Fox Sin of Greed who were two of the most vicious fighters indeed. Luckily for him, the last fight of the night was about to begin from the signal of trumpets in the background.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Howzer wondered how Elizabeth could have entangled herself with one of the fighters. Although she told him how they’d met, the story seemed too good to be true. Especially after knowing how serious and violent these next two fighters could be. He briefly wondered if she owed one of them money through an accidental car crash or if they had intimidated her into starting a relationship. As he watched Elizabeth, however, she seemed relaxed and excited for her “friend” to come out onto the scene.
The crowd was cheering loudly at this point. Howzer turned his head to see the Fox Sin of Greed enter the ring. He was tall and muscled, with a scar stretching down the left side of his face unto his lower neck. His hair was spiky and silver, and not the notable yellow that Elizabeth had mentioned prior. Elizabeth could’ve easily mistaken the Fox’s silver hair for yellow knowing how ditzy she was in real life.
He glanced at Elizabeth for any recognition in her face, but her facial expression remained in its neutral state of glee. The reality of the situation was settling onto Howzer as he viewed the stage to see the final competitor enter, the ever-skilled Dragon Sin of Wrath.
After greeting the Fox, the Dragon scanned the crowd appearing to look for someone. Howzer had a feeling he was searching for Elizabeth but the smallest shred of doubt within him was telling him that the Dragon’s sight would settle on anyone else but her. The blonde-headed fighter with emerald eyes finally latched onto his target and he neared the edge of the ring to wave at Elizabeth. Howzer could feel Elizabeth waving back from beside him and he was in shock that the two were in a relationship.
“Yo! Elizabeth! Root for me like there’s no tomorrow, okay?”
With that, the Dragon turned around and returned to his match. Howzer could only watch in awe knowing what he knew about the legendary fighter and his dear friend, Elizabeth.
After the match ended, Howzer stayed with Elizabeth to ensure that she met with Meliodas safely. He didn’t forget how many men were gawking at her and surrounding her like a piece of meat on display before he went to sit with her in the stands. He was grateful that she had found him and called out to him.
The arena was mostly empty now and Howzer wondered how much longer they’d have to wait out on the stands. His thoughts were quickly answered, however, when he heard very loud yelling coming from one of the hallway entrances leading back to the dressing rooms.
Soon enough, the Fox and Dragon boxers were making their way out of the entrance and into the stage room laughing with one another.
Howzer was inwardly hoping to have the chance of meeting them and congratulating them on their well-deserved glory. Without the shock of today’s encounter with Elizabeth, Howzer was a huge fan.
The two legendary boxers drew closer to Howzer and Elizabeth until they were right in front of them. Howzer wanted to shout out of excitement by being so up-close with them but he contained himself for Elizabeth.
“Yo! Elizabeth!” Meliodas greeted. He pulled her into a hug and adjusted their position so that his arm was wrapped around her waist. Howzer could see Elizabeth smile and that made him happy for the couple.
“Elizabeth,” Meliodas continued, “This is Ban. We’re roommates when we’re traveling for boxing events like this.”
“Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” Elizabeth said. “This is my dear friend, Howzer. He was seated with me during the events today.”
As if only just realizing the presence of another man, Meliodas eyed Howzer cautiously. Howzer could see Meliodas’ grip on Elizabeth tightening ever so slowly as if to pull her away from this strange man she was with. The thought almost made Howzer laugh with uncertainty.
“Nice to meet you,” Meliodas finally said. “Thanks for staying by Elizabeth’s side today.” Meliodas smiled genuinely and Howzer could not contain himself any longer.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Dragon, oh what an honor it is to meet both you and Mr. Fox. I am a huge fan and I can only hope to reach your power level one day.” Howzer said without a breath. Ban and Meliodas stared at Howzer for a moment in silence before cracking up.
“Yeah,” Ban said. “Let’s get to know each other better one day.”
The foursome walked out of the arena house together. Ban said goodnight and Howzer also said his goodbyes before leaving. Meliodas and Elizabeth were finally alone together after a long day full of boxing matches.
“Be thankful you weren’t boxing hearts, Meliodas,” Elizabeth warns. “Affairs of the heart can be more painful than you think.”
Meliodas cupped her butt and gave it a squeeze before replying.
“Don’t worry about me, you’re the only girl for me, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth smiled and grabbed his hand as they continued their walk into the parking lot.
“So, what would you like to eat? I’m buying.” Meliodas said.
“Hmm,” Elizabeth pondered jokingly. “How about some hot dogs?”
Meliodas winked at her. “As you wish.”