All Booked Up

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the canon characters; they belong to their respective owners such as Netflix, Amblin Entertainment, and the original author of the mangas. Oh, and this is set in a modern world AU.

"When I first saw her, I didn't really see her, just the pile of books she was carrying," Ban begins to tell the story to his captivated audience, watching as each of their eyes widen at the start of the tale of how he met his amazing Elaine, the woman he referred to as his fairy princess.

Ban shifts his weight in the giant green armchair he currently is lounging in, slinging his legs over the arm of the chair as he moves his tongue over his unimaginably sharp canines. And, with that, the blue-haired, scarlet-eyed young man begins to delve into the story of how he met his true love for the first time. And, to think, they never would have met had it not been for King bailing on their group project for History that the two boys had due in a few days.

Ban is visibly and mentally enraged. King had abandoned him for the third time that week in order to try and fail at flirting with Diane, for whatever that was worth. He sighs deeply, practically throwing his books on the American Revolution onto the floor before realizing he is in a library and it was probably best not to further agitate the librarian any more than necessary. Librarian Dreyfus already didn't like him enough as is. So, choosing the wiser path in case he may ever need the library's services again in his dreaded six months left in his senior year, Ban simply throws his chair backwards with as much quiet force as he can muster before stalking towards the computers in order to send King both an extremely irked email and an equally as peeved text message through iMessage on the computer. Because, of course, today of all days would be when Ban's phone would choose to die during the middle of fourth period earlier today when he was texting Meliodas during a rather unpleasant math test. Meliodas was in Study Hall that period as it were, the lucky duck, since he had taken all of the classes required for graduation during his sophomore and junior years. Ban, meanwhile, liked to drag his feet and do the least amount of work required for him each year, hence why he had a study hall every year but this one, which seemed to be a shot in his own foot since Meliodas, King, and Diane both had two study halls this year. (Both Meliodas and King liked to rub that fact in Ban's face, particularly King since he likes to say he sleeps two back to back periods since he has his two free periods one after the other.) Meliodas, meanwhile, typically texts Ban during Ban's math period and then during Ban's science class, which could explain why Ban is basically failing both of those classes due to the blonde boy texting Ban nonstop. It also can be said this is why Ban typically has no phone battery by the time fifth period and lunch come around. Typically, whenever they had a test in math, Ban would simply scrawl his name in almost unreadable print before pretending to mull over the questions, only to turn in every test completely blank, save for his name. He would then proceed to text Meliodas and occasionally King, if for nothing more than to get on the shorter teen known by few as Harlequin. Thus, why Ban tried his hardest in subjects he actually liked, to offset the complete disappointment and laughingstock he made of himself in math and science. It's not that he was stupid; he just didn't have the drive to apply himself. Especially not after…. Well, you know. The accident with his sister had left him uncaring, unmotivated, and unemotional. She was the only person he had truly cared for and loved in this world, and she was taken before she even had a chance to love. So, yeah, Ban figured he deserved a bit of slack and compassion from his teachers, but none had come. And so, he fell behind in his two most hated subjects, did well enough to pass in three others, and absolutely knocked History and Economics out of the park. Because, unlike the other subjects being shoved down his throat, Ban actually cared about history due to what he liked to call "the rich, exciting, and brutal wars" and money. Money and wars were all Ban cared to learn about, thank you very much. And now King was getting in the way of their project on a famous American Revolution war hero. Ban had picked Alexander Hamilton for their group because he had so many references ready to be made! I mean, there was a whole soundtrack of music he could include in their project if only King would stop pulling an Aaron Burr, pretending he was on Hamilton's side only to stab him in the back and bail. (True, Burr killed Hamilton with a gun, but the analogy is still one to consider in Ban's slightly twisted mind.)

Back in the present, Ban finishes his irked email and peeved text on the computer before standing up, stretching his extremely and almost impossibly long legs. He begins to gather up his red backpack, slinging it over one shoulder before forcibly gathering all of the rest of the materials he had brought for the project, ready to work until the school library closed at four if that was what it took. Knowing he'd have to check out the books on Hamilton sooner rather than later, Ban practically stalked towards Librarian Dreyfus' desk, looking akin to a fox on the prowl. His lips twitch ever so slightly, exposing his canines as he softly groans at the line forming at Dreyfus' desk. As if this day could get any worse, he may have to stay in the library's line for about half an hour if not more because all the nerds in front of him chose to come today to check out nearly one, two, three…. Sixteen books on average for both their history project and one from English where they had to compare two historical pieces of nonfiction literature, an assignment Ban had completed about a week ago with a feverish look in his scarlet eyes as he pounded out close to a thousand words an hour. With history being his favorite subject, Ban could furiously write about it and loved it even more when he got to share his thoughts about historical matters with both his teachers and peers. After all, Ban didn't want to be doomed to repeat the past, so he figured he better at least understand it.

"Come on!" Ban groans dragging out each syllable and throwing his head back as he sighs, staring up at the ceiling for enjoyment as he waits in the eternal line that seems to be present at the checkout desk.

During his assessment of the ceiling, Ban counts four water stains, nine cracks in the tile, and the start of what could be described as a stalactite of assorted pencils and pens the members of the Holy Knights football team had chucked up there to try and prove their machismo. Pathetic. Simply a waste of pencils and pens that could be used for more important matters, such as throwing them at the back of King's head or Meliodas' arm when the blonde got a bit too comfortable in his flirting with Elizabeth in front of Diane.

Finally, Ban moved to the front of the line after, oh, twenty five and a half minutes of standing in the never-ending line of peers. Not that Ban was counting or anything. Okay, so he was. He can't help it. It was Friday, and he had promised Meliodas that he would be over at his house no later than five for pizza and a night filled of binging The Walking Dead and then playing Injustice: Gods Among Us until the wee hours of the morning. Not that either of them ever won their battles, because they were both master players who either ran out of time during the battle or simply delivered the crippling, decisive blow at exactly the same time. Maybe it was an anomaly and should statistically never happen, but Meliodas and Ban like to state that they are just that skilled. Ban and Meliodas usually both school Gowther and King whenever they play, so it isn't a flaw with Meliodas' copy of the game. And, it is those thoughts that distract Ban enough as he takes the receipt stating when his books are due that he runs smack into a stack of books hovering about three and a half feet off the ground. Ban wasn't going to apologize even as the books slammed to the floor with the force of a stampede of rhinos, because he just ran into a book stack that Dreyfus probably had meant to shelve before the unending line of teenagers had broken his peace and schedule by demanding that he check out their books for school before the school library closed for the weekend. Shrugging off the slight shock and the fact that he knocked over the stack of inanimate books, Ban begins to walk towards the exit, only

"Hey!" a high-pitched female voice nearly yells, and Ban has the civility to turn his head around, only to see a tiny blonde girl clutching her purse to her chest and looking like she may get tears in her golden eyes at any moment.

"Hey, yourself," Ban smirks, his scarlet eyes laughing in mirth as he wonders why this girl he has never seen before is calling after him.

Surely she wasn't going to turn him into Dreyfus for knocking over a stack of books. I mean, come on! She looked like a goody-two shoes, but Ban seriously doubted the blonde girl cared that much about the books being hurt. She had two hands. If she was that worried about them, she could pick them up.

"Are you not going to help me?" she calls after him when he tries to walk away and get in his truck to go over to Meliodas' for pizza and a night full of TV shows and video games.

"Why? Ya got two good hands on ya. If ya want to pick up the books, be my guest," Ban smiles, exposing his canines before he then notices the girl is sniffling and has a few tears in her eyes.

"No, that's not why," the girl continues to say in a rather meek and somewhat scared tone of voice. "I guess chivalry is dead," she says, her voice above a whisper as a few other kids simply stare at her sitting on the floor surrounding by books and an opened backpack and laugh.

"What?" Ban inquires, wheeling around and actually facing the girl who seemed intent on getting his attention, regardless of the trivial matter of picking up a stack of about ten books that could weigh no more than two pounds apiece.

"You knocked me over and made me drop all of my books," the girl tells him, her golden eyes nearly piercing a hole through Ban as he looks at her crestfallen face.

Ban swears under his breath before dropping to his knees- a long way down due to his height- and he moves to sit on the floor next to the girl.

"I didn't even see you," Ban whispers, an apologetic tone in his voice before he swears quietly again. "All I saw was that pile of books. Thought it was Dreyfus' stack of stuff to be shelved. Didn't even know you were there," he continues, setting his own stack of books about Hamilton on the floor beside him.

"It happens to a lot of people, unfortunately," she reveals, trying to pick up a few of her own books while Ban makes quick work of picking up some of her papers that came out of her open backpack at the time of the crash. "I didn't ask to be born short. So, people kind of just prey on that like it will give them some sort of authority over me."

"That's awful-" Ban trails off, before noticing something that stands out to him amongst the stack of twenty books about the American Revolution and George Washington. "You like Hamilton?!" Ban shouts, earning him a collective "SHHHHH!" from the rest of the library and the girl in front of him.

"Was it that obvious?" she questions with the smallest sign of a smile playing at her lips. "What was it, the collection of my books on George Washington and his plans that involved Hamilton?" the girl laughs, tucking a piece of blonde hair behind her ear as she puts a few of the George Washington centric books into her already overflowing backpack.

"No," Ban reveals, a smile forming on his own lips. "It was this!" he triumphantly reveals, showing her the Hamilton soundtrack that had slipped out of her backpack along with her presentation outline for her project on George Washington. "Here comes the General," he whispers, handing her the CD case along with one of the smaller books on Washington and her presentation outlines.

Her face turns a bright crimson as Ban hands her the CD case, and she realizes that one of her most well-guarded secrets about being a Hamilton fan girl have slipped out into the open. Her own brother makes fun of her for constantly listening to the soundtrack; she could only imagine what Ban, captain of the wrestling team, would think of her choice in music.

"Yes. It's my favorite," she whispers, and Ban closes the distance between himself and the small girl in front of him.

"Mine, too," he softly reveals, a genuine smile appearing on her face.

"Really?"

"Yeah, little miss. Now, why is someone so young in the high school library?"

"I'm not a child," the blonde girl reveals in a rather huffy voice, crossing her arms defiantly across her chest before she accepts Ban's offered hand that pulls her to her feet. "I'm in your grade," she reveals, and that makes Ban cackle to no end as he scoops to pick up his own belongings before matching her slower gait that compensates for the extra weight in her hands.

"Well, I've never seen you before….." he starts to say, only to trail off at the lack of a name. "What's your name?"

"Elaine," she supplies, and Ban can't help but think that is one of the most beautiful names he has heard in existence.

"Elaine, that's a pretty name. I'm storing that in my memory here," Ban states, and that prompts a little laughter and a slight blush from Elaine. "Now, then I am…." he begins to introduce himself.

"I'm in your class, Ban," Elaine reveals, and that comment alone takes Ban aback.

"Which one? I've never seen ya before!" Ban struggles with remembering what class this beautiful, innocent looking girl could possibly be in.

Surely he would remember someone as pretty as her being in one of his class. Especially if she loved Hamilton as much as he clearly did.

"History," Elaine simply replies, looking over at Ban for a brief moment before she blushes slightly. "I sit in the front of your row where I can see the board," she reveals, and a lightbulb goes off in Ban's head.

"You're King's sister?!" Ban nearly yells in surprise, only knowing that piece of information because that annoying pest Helbram sat near Ban and had revealed that King's sister sat in Ban's row at the very front.

However, due to Elaine not having the advantage of height, Diane and Gilthunder effectively block Elaine from Ban's view since they also sit in the blue-haired boy's row.

"Yes," Elaine meekly replies. "So, even if you weren't in my class, I'd know who you were," she blushes slightly, especially when she feels his hand brush against hers as he keeps her books from falling to the floor a second time. "He complains about you a lot, but I know you're one of his closest friends."

Ban simply shrugs, berating himself in his mind for never noticing such a beautiful, sensitive, and historical musical loving girl.

"So, are you free any time this weekend?" Ban inquires, and the blush reappears on Elaine's cheeks. " 'Cause, I feel terrible that I knocked ya down and almost left ya on the ground where somebody coulda stepped on your work and your soundtrack. I'd like to take ya out for coffee or hot chocolate if that's your sort of thing," he smiles, feeling a bit awkward which is a bit out of character for him.

"No, Ban. I'm not free this weekend," Elaine regretfully admits, her golden eyes betraying her disappointment. "I'm all booked up," she laughs, and Ban can't help but roll his scarlet eyes at her sad attempt at a joke.

"Literally or figuratively?" Ban laughs, and Elaine feels a flutter in her chest, knowing that she could learn to love his deep, rumbling laugh.

"Both. Such are the pains of being in advanced class, skipping three grades, and being the president of three different societies," Elaine reveals, her golden eyes laughing as she sees the shock on Ban's face at just how much she has accomplished and the fact that she is three years younger than him. "I'm fifteen, so it's not weird to me if you don't think it's weird," she laughs, and Ban feels a rush of relief. "As for what everyone else may think, we're in the same grade, so special circumstances will have to be considered."

"Ya know, I don't care what everyone else thinks," Ban admits, swooping all of the books out of her hands and carrying them in his own before offering one of his muscular arms to the girl walking by his side. "But, I can at the very least walk you out to your brother's car since I'm sure he'll be awhile trying to flirt with Diane. That's why I was alone in the library. He bailed on me," the blue-haired senior smirks, thinking of the failure that is sure to be King's awkward flirting with Diane.

"Well, I will be having a word with him, then," Elaine remarks, laughing slightly before revealing the cause of her laughter to Ban. "Diane has softball practice today, so she'll no doubt give King quite the lecture on how not to interrupt her when she is getting in the mood to train for next week's game," the blonde girl laughs, and Ban can't help but agree.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Elaine. Stay in touch, yeah?" Ban remarks while sliding her stack of books into the back seat of King's rather ancient looking green car. "Here. Don't lose this. Might as well stick it in your Hamilton case. You won't lose it there," he teases, slipping a piece of paper with his phone number into Elaine's Hamilton CD case.

"I won't," Elaine promises, a smile on her lips. "And, if I were able to squeeze out ten minutes to get hot chocolate at the café down the street from my house…..?" she trails off, allowing Ban to fill in the gaps.

"Well, then you know how to contact me," Ban grins back, and it's like the whole world lights up. "See ya in class on Monday, yeah?" he asks, and Elaine is now sure that she will have an escort to her classes from now on from the practically giant blue-haired boy named Ban.

He would not let anyone else sweep Elaine off her feet, be it in a romantic sense or in the bullying sense that they like to see the small, intelligent girl being knocked across the hallway like a ragdoll. She was now his to protect, whether Ban or Elaine would admit it to themselves.

"Definitely," Elaine grins, and Ban becomes weak at the knees, so he leans against King's car for support before walking away.

And if when Ban returned home from Meliodas' that night and bought two amazing seats to see Hamilton in November as a way to ask Elaine out on a first date, then that was his business.

Ban takes a deep breath before ending his story.

"And, that, little ones, is how I met your mother," he grins, readjusting his hold on his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter as she has slipped into a deep sleep on her Daddy's chest after Elaine had given little Katsu her nighttime bath.

Ban takes in all of the amazed faces surrounding him of his three older children that are sitting in a circle on the carpeted floor, bundled in blankets and surrounding themselves in a pillow fort they had built with their Daddy earlier in the day while Elaine was at work. Bishamon, their oldest child and only son looks the most amazed, his mouth in a wide O, as he is most likely the only one who understand all of his father's words. The blue-haired, red-eyed boy is seven, and so he is starting to understand more and more of stories and what their true meaning is whereas his younger sisters Akemi and Nikki sit beside him and focus only on the fact that the story is about their Mama and Daddy. They are only five and three, so it is to be expected that they focus only on the main ideas presented and not the implications.

"Ban, what are you doing?" Elaine inquires, walking in, her stomach rounding with the presence of their fifth child that would be born in about five and a half more months.

"Telling the children the story of how we met, Elaine," Ban grins, keeping his voice low to where he does not wake up little Katsu sleeping on his chest whereas the other children have been lulled into a peaceful state where they are lying down on the pillows and blankets, listening to the easy voice of their father as he told them the story of how he met Elaine in high school.

"Mm-hmm. Well, I am sure they enjoyed that," Elaine grins, sitting down on Ban's knee before leaning in and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "But, if that is an attempt to get me to consider your name for our child, it will not work," she smirks, and Ban playfully scowls.

"But, Elaine, Alexander would make a great name for our son! Or Eliza if we have a girl!" Ban solidifies his opinion, and Elaine silences him with a kiss.

He could practically hear Bishamon sharing Philip's line in one of the Hamilton songs.

"I have a little sister, Daddy, but I want a little brother!"

However, Ban would not have it any other way. He had love in his life, and to think, it was all because his now brother-in-law King had bailed on a history project to flirt with Diane. If that is how slippery slope logical fallacies work, Ban wants to live through one every day with his young family.

Author's Note: And there's my fifth Seven Deadly Sins FanFiction! This was written for my younger sister Madison who challenged me with the prompt and told me it absolutely had to be about Ban and Elaine. The writing got away from me, and this became waaaaaay longer than I had intended. I hope everyone enjoyed, and look out for any other Banlaine and other general Seven Deadly Sins stories from me! Have a nice day, afternoon, or night; until next time, my dear readers! Hope everyone enjoyed, and, as always, reviews are always appreciated and helpful!