A/N: I actually need to write more stuff set in canon/similar to canon circumstances. I'm always leaning towards more modern aus...
Anyway, this entry is just a short, little fun thing that is WAY overdue for the theme of June! In this I wanted to focus on motorcycles, cause why not? I was also listening to some Khalid and it kinda led in this direction for most of the summer entries...
Till next time,
D.L.D
Motorcycle rides (June)
High summer. A clear blue sky stretches overhead, filled with perfect white clouds that looked like a intricately crafted mirage. Taking the centre of the sky was a bright golden sun, the asphalt below cooking in its baking heat. Summer was never particularly hot in Britannia. Located in the northern hemisphere of the world, it was never blessed with the humid, tropical climates of more southern-based nations. Usually it would be mild heat, a nice clear week of clear skies and sunshine, but this year was different. This year was filled with blistering heat and steaming tarmac.
A green motorcycle rumbled past on the road, its dark tires dull despite the bright glare of the sun. Behind it trailed a long silver ribbon - hair - the owner of it clinging tightly onto the motorcycle's driver. Not that she particularly noticed; her eyes were firmly squeezed shut.
"How do you do this every day?!" Her soft voice manages to break over the loud roar of the engine. Gently, she squeezes the male in front of her.
Sending a quick, short glance in her direction, he grins, "I'm used to it. I was practically raised on this thing!"
The female bites into her lower lip. Now that was not reassuring. Even though Meliodas was a really good driver, like super, super good, Elizabeth did not know his capabilities with motorbikes. When Ban had drunkenly joked about Meliodas' surprise being a high-speed motorcycle race through the empty freeways surrounding Liones, she thought he was kidding. She figured it was another one of his stupid, drunk babblings. Clearly, Elizabeth had been wrong.
"Did you really have to bring me along?" Elizabeth slowly opens her eyes, blinking to adjust to the surging air around her. Her arms remain locked around his waist, refusing to budge. "I would have come to cheered you on either way."
"You have to experience it firsthand," Meliodas explained nonchalantly, his grip never faltering on the throttle. His grin grows. "Plus I like having the roles reversed."
Red heat immediately fills Elizabeth's face, the female biting deeper down into her lower lip. In all her panic and fluster, she had forgotten how close she was to him. She had forgotten about her arms locked tightly around his waist, never wishing to let go. Usually, it was Meliodas who was the most handsy of the pair. At any given time of day you could find him 'appreciating' Elizabeth's outfit of the day or being inexplicably close to her. Not that she entirely minded, she knew it was just one of his many, many endearing behaviours. But never had Elizabeth found herself instigating such situations. It just wasn't something she did.
"Well, it's only because I'm terrified of falling off," She manages to respond, her voice barely breaking over the thrumming engine.
"Sure," Meliodas grins, a little too innocently, as he twists the throttle and increases the bike's acceleration. "Let's say it's that."
Immediately, Elizabeth shrieks and plasters herself against him, her arms locking even more tightly around his waist. Racing inside of her chest, her heart knocks dangerously against her ribs and she's sure they're both going to end up dead, flat and splattered all over the road, but Meliodas just laughs. He laughs.
"Meliodas!" She finally shouts, entirely breathless. Red-faced and wide-eyed, Elizabeth tries to regather her breath, her voice. "There was no need for that! We're already way ahead of the opposition."
Glancing over her shoulder, Elizabeth peers back at the empty road baking in the dry heat. True to her word, not even the distant thrum of an engine could be heard; not even the bright metallic gleam of a souped up bike could be spotted from miles upon miles away. All ahead and all behind them stretched the dark, empty tarmac, devoid of any vehicles and free of traffic; they had plenty of time to win the race.
"You should know better than anyone that being ahead doesn't mean you'll always win," Meliodas teases, keeping his eye on the road. He needed to pay attention here, especially since he had to check the road signs. "Didn't you tell me about the Tortoise and the Hare?"
Elizabeth pouts, "I also told you about how dangerous this was."
"I don't remember that," Meliodas replies lightly.
Pretty soon they're taking an exit off the blistering motorway, following the narrowing tarmac under an arch of looming trees. Cool shade immediately bats away the humid heat of the day, graciously supplied by the tall and wide plants. Biting her lip, Elizabeth finds herself worrying at this change in scenery. She wasn't expecting to see so many trees, let alone in such large and looming states. Large and looming trees meant they were heading away from civilization; large and looming trees meant they were off course.
"This isn't the right turning," Elizabeth says, frowning as the road begins to thin out even more. She was pretty sure she could even spot a dirt track up ahead, worn tyre tracks imprinted in the cracked and dried dust. "Weren't we meant to head back into Liones?"
"Yeah, but we have something to do first," Meliodas assures her, easily transitioning from smooth tarmac to rougher, bumpier dirt. Expertly, he follows the barely visible track, keeping a steady hand on the handels and brakes.
"What?" Elizabeth blinks, not fully following his words. No, she was panicking. Worrying. Liones was a bustling, urban city and this place was looking more and more like a dangerous off-road diversion. It was looking more and more like an off-grid, barely known about location. A place hand-picked out of a murder documentary about two stupid kids wandering too far from the road, from known safety.
Soon enough, the narrow dirt track led off into a wider, more man-made area. Gradually, the ground expanded out into a more widened dirt patch, large and level and marked with many tyre tracks, new and old. Grass sprouted where the ground began to rise at the edges of the patch, devoid of the flat and marked soil. Instead the plants growing on the outskirts were tall, wild, a natural cushion if anyone were to fall off a vehicle at a very high speed.
Then, before Elizabeth could make any sense of what was going on, Meliodas stopped the bike, pulled off his helmet and handed her the keys, leaving Elizabeth speechless, her jaw agape as she blinked at him in utter confusion. Bemusement. After all, what could she do with his motorbike? Elizabeth didn't even know the first thing about one!
"Consider this your first lesson!" Meliodas grins, right at the centre of Elizabeth's confused and shocked stare. Her complete opposite, he appears excited, thrilled, his youthful features tugging with amusement as the female remains on the motorbike, motionless and still in disbelief. Complete and utter disbelief.
In one motion, she looks down at the keys, the metal glinting in the jaded sunlight, and then brings her eyes to stare at the blonde then back down at the keys once again. A part of her feels like this cannot be real. Her wish to know how to ride a motorbike cannot be suddenly granted because her boyfriend conveniently raced them all the time. There was no way reality worked like that. No way at all.
Right?
"You're joking," Elizabeth deadpans, eyes wide as she looks once again at the blonde. He stares right back at her, serious as ever. Shaking her head, she reiterates herself, "Really, you have to be joking, Meliodas."
"Does it look like I am?" The blonde raises a brow.
"But..."
"But?" He echoes, now growing a teasing a grin as he tosses her a spare helmet.
Clumsily, she catches it, her hands nervous and fumbling with nerves. As her fingers anxiously fiddle with the helmet, Elizabeth finds herself frowning even further at its presence, entirely baffled. Where did he get that from? Did he always have it? Was it just something he thought to bring because he planned on taking her on his bike? How did Elizabeth not notice any of this? Was she truly so distracted today that she didn't notice any of it?
She needed to work on her observational skills.
"How- " Elizabeth takes in a deep breath, closing her eyes as she steadies herself. When she opens them again, she is calm, collected, her thoughts running somewhat coherently. "How did you know I wanted to learn?"
"Let's just say a good friend told me," Meliodas grinned, a hand coming to sheepishly scratch at the back of his head. A nervous habit - a tell. It was something he did when Elizabeth had caught him snooping around, especially if he thought she'd get really upset about it.
"What good friend?" She queries, knowing very well that most of his good friends didn't know her as well as he did. Most of them wouldn't even know that she had a bit of a secret soft spot for motor-cross, bikes and all things racing.
"A good friend," Meliodas offers, entirely ready to brush the whole subject under the rug. But Elizabeth isn't. Elizabeth has caught on.
"You took it!" Elizabeth's eyes widen as she takes in his appearance, knowing his guilt immediately. "You're the one who's been taking my old diaries and leaving silly comments in them."
"Me?" Meliodas feigns shock, placing a hand over his chest. He pulls an innocent expression, scratching his chin as he suddenly finds the surrounding trees a lot more interesting. Did he just spot one that looked a little too yellow compared to the rest? "I have no idea what you're talking about, Elizabeth."
"Yes, you do!" Elizabeth grins, entirely catching him in the act of lying. One by one her diaries had gone missing for a few days, miraculously returning with funny little comments and doodles in the margins. Each and every time they went missing, Elizabeth would think that she just misplaced them or that Veronica was rifling through her stuff again. But when they came back with comments and doodles, she knew it was a different culprit. Veronica hated leaving a trace.
So, at first, Elizabeth had been set on catching her diary thief in the flesh. She suspected a couple of people - including Meliodas - and had put a lot of effort and time into trying to catch her thief. However it all turned up short. Well, it did until today - Meliodas had been caught right in the act. She had wondered how he knew about her wish to have a pet pig.
Smiling, Elizabeth lets a giggle escape her pinked cheeks, "I like them, by the way - the comments I mean. I actually laughed at a few of them."
"I really didn't appreciate being called a bozo," Meliodas agreed, laughing as he recounted one of her older entries. That one hadn't been too flattering for his ego, the young Elizabeth going on a very steady rant about how horrible he was for throwing that ball in her face and refusing to apologise.
"I was seven!" Elizabeth defends herself, laughing along with him. Her cheeks felt warm, but the nice kind of warm. "And you were a bully."
"I wouldn't say being a normal kid is bullying," Meliodas rolls his eyes, not at all believing his past self to be a bully. He was just hyper, more souped up and chaotic than most kids, his father's parenting style not really helping. Honestly, the old man let them do whatever they wanted - that included stealing cars and bikes from as early as thirteen. Meliodas was raised to be an erratic little monster, his father taking pride in his son's unruliness.
"You pushed me into the sandbox every day," Elizabeth responded, remembering how long it took to get all of that sand from her hair. Even though she never cried about it, being shoved into the sandbox was never very pleasant. Sand always stuck in clumps when wet, so every time she rinsed it out it would stick, meaning another half hour was spent combing and clawing all the sand out. Then she'd get shoved into it the very next day once more.
"You asked for it," Meliodas retorted, shrugging effortlessly. It wasn't a lie either - Elizabeth wanted him to shove her into the sandbox. When he had stopped doing it, she begged him to to do it as 'it was the only time' he truly interacted with her. "I didn't want to disappoint- "
"Alright, I'll ride the bike!" Elizabeth cries out, ready to stop this pointless back and forth about their former school days. So much happened, so many moments that could be interpreted differently from the outside looking in. If learning to ride this damned bike made Meliodas shut up about it, then she would do it. She'd rather do that than hear about the next chapter of that stage of their lives - middle school.
"Yes!" Meliodas whooped, victorious.
So, for the next few minutes Meliodas goes through all the basics of motorcycle driving with Elizabeth. Clearly and patiently, he points out the brakes, clutch, throttle and everything else that was necessary to note before testing her on it. Once all that was memorized, the true test came - the most dangerous part - which involved Elizabeth applying the knowledge she gained to physically steering and controlling this mechanical beast.
Taking in a deep breath, Elizabeth closed her eyes and got herself to focus. Completely concentrated, her brows furrowed and lips pressed, she wrapped her hands around the handle bars and kicked the bike into gear. Immediately, too quickly for her liking, the engine roared into life and bike jerked forward, dragging Elizabeth with it. Before she could react, think to ditch her position on the vehicle, they both rammed into a nearby tree, sending Elizabeth flying off it, the heavy, metal bike landing right on top of her.
"Oh shit!" Meliodas sprung into action as soon as he'd spotted that she had lost control, cursing himself for thinking this would actually be a fun idea. He'd completely spaced about if things went south.
Heaving the bike off her, not at all concerned about it, the blonde extends a hand to the fallen woman, "Are you ok, Elizabeth?"
"Yes," She gives a watery smile back, shakily standing up and patting the dirt and dust from her legs - but only with one arm. Her other arm was bent at a weird angle, twisted at the elbow and most definitely needing medical attention.
"Come on, let's get you patched up," Meliodas sighs, mentally noting to never try this again. It was too dangerous. Much too dangerous. "We're not doing this again."
"There will be a next time," Elizabeth says simply, watching Meliodas rip his t-shirt, producing two strips. He was going to splint her arm - how sweet. That was something Elizabeth hadn't expected, especially since a quick call to the emergency services would result in an ambulance arriving. Then she remembered: there's probably no service here. No wonder why Meliodas thought this was dangerous.
"There won't be," Meliodas responds, daring her to challenge him. To even try and think about persuading him into it again. He picks up two sticks that looked as if they'd do a decent enough job, using the strips of his t-shirt to secure them into a splint.
"There will be," Elizabeth smiles, ignoring the terrible pain that shot down her arm as he tightened the final strip. "I'll just make sure you don't know about it."
"And I'll still be there to stop it," Meliodas grins back, proud of his own recall of some first aid he learned quite a while ago.
"I know," Elizabeth places a kiss atop his head - a thanks for splinting her arm. "But that's why I'll train in secret until next time comes."
"You are so stubborn," Meliodas groans, both intensely in awe and frustration at this woman. It's like nothing can phase her at times - even breaking her arm after ramming into a tree because she lost control of a motorbike.
"I know," Elizabeth grins, feeling just the same. "But so are you. Also..." She winces a little, suddenly feeling the adrenaline fade from her first crash. "Can we get to the hospital?"
Meliodas laughs, picking up his bike. God he loves this woman.