"I have a question," said Jordyn, as she and Auba wandered down the tunnel of the empty stadium.
"Do you now," the Gabonese responded, glancing at her. He ran a thumb absently over her hand which was clasped in his own. Jordyn was shy, he knew, and she didn't ask him about himself very often, as if she was almost too scared to ask. "What do you want to know?"
Jordyn was blinking as they reached the end of the tunnel, and came out into the late afternoon sunlight that decorated the empty pitch. She said nothing for a moment, admiring the view.
"Wishing I had a camera," she muttered, and Auba chuckled.
"What was your question?"
"Oh, right," she said, turning to look at him. "Football. Is that your passion?"
"Yes," said Auba immediately. Jordyn raised an eyebrow.
"No hesitation," she said, shaking her head.
"I can't tell if you're impressed or if you're doubting me," said Auba.
"I'm impressed," she stated. "Most people have no idea what they're really passionate about. Sometimes, I still wonder."
"Is it not photography?" Auba wondered.
"I hesitate. That's how I know it's not."
"You're the most observant person I know," Auba shook his head, with a smile. "And yes, I'm impressed."
Jordyn laughed happily, turning back to the pitch.
"I want to run on it," she said, and it was Auba's turn to laugh.
"I know the feeling. Be my guest. I've just ran a full 90 out there though, so don't expect too much energy from me."
Jordyn had already taken off, and Auba chased after her, easily catching up within a few seconds. He caught her around the waist, and the Australian squealed in protest.
"That's not fair!"
Auba laughed, before setting her on her feet again.
"Sorry," he winked at her.
"What does 'ran a full 90' mean anyway?" She asked, with a frown.
"I played the entire game, I didn't get subbed off. Games typically take around 90 minutes, so..."
"Ah, okay," she nodded. "Makes sense."
Auba smiled at her.
"Jord, I... I want to ask you to be my girlfriend, but I don't want to freak you out if you don't wanna commit to anything yet," he said suddenly, the words tumbling out of his mouth almost before he could have stopped them. Jordyn turned to stare at him in surprise. "So," said Auba, breathing deeply, because there was no going back now. "Why don't you tell me if you want that before I ask you, and then I won't have to worry?"
Jord felt a smile creeping onto her face, her heart warming at his words.
"You are literally the sweetest boy on this planet," she said softly, taking his hand once again.
Auba sniffed.
"Ain't a boy no more," he muttered.
"Your maturity level begs to differ, although what you just said was pretty mature, I'll give you that. I appreciate you giving me time, Auba, I really do. I went through a couple hard break ups in the past, which is why I'm so hesitant to start anything new. But... I'm ready. I know I can tell you that with confidence, at least."
Auba smiled then, pulling her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his torso tightly, revelling in the way her heart rate skyrocketed, and her cheeks reddened.
"Okay then girlfriend," he said after a minute, kissing the tip of her nose gently. "I promise I'll do everything in my power not to mess this up. As long as you can promise that too?"
"Yeah," she nodded, with a contented smile.
"I don't think I've ever seen you look this happy," he teased her, and Jordyn rolled her eyes.
"Hey, that's not fair, your default is happy," she chuckled. "Am I gonna be bad for your ego? I don't want us to become toxic within five minutes of being together."
"It might be too late for that," Auba shook his head. "It's fine. We'll never be as bad as L&L, so..."
"L&L?" Jord raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Laca and Lia? Come on, how have you not thought of this before?" Auba laughed.
"Ohhhh. Of course. They're iconic though, so we'll forgive them. I love your friendship with Laca, by the way, I don't know if I've said that before, but... yeah. I feel like people don't express platonic love very well these days, and they think it's not important, or whatever. But it is."
Auba smiled at her, but if the smile didn't quite reach his eyes that time, perhaps she didn't notice.
~.~.~.~
"Look at this guy, O la la, Cupid has got you my friend!"
Auba looked up from his phone to see Laca was videoing him, presumably for Instagram, and he rolled his eyes playfully, throwing up his hands.
"Allow it, bruv," he complained, causing Laca to giggle, a sound which would forever amuse Auba. The Gabonese shook his head.
"Okay, BRUV," Laca was saying, imitating his friend's adopted English slang which sounded strange when combined with his French accent. "Okay. Okay."
"I will never get used to these two talking like road men," Ains shook his head, as he watched from the opposite corner of the locker room.
"Init," Hector chuckled. "Unbelievable. KT could learn from them, and English is his first language."
"I refuse to be dragged into this," Kieran shook his head.
The locker room door opened, at this point, and Gabi and Matteo entered, looking around curiously.
"Where's Auba and Laca?" Asked Matteo.
"Your parents? They're in their usual corner," said Hector, glancing over. "Currently engaged in some weird ritual, but..."
He broke off, watching the two of them dancing around like a pair of emus. The rest of them giggled at his words.
"Oi, Auba e Laca! Bom dia! Vocé ter um novo gol celebração?"
"English, Gabi," Hector reminded him gently.
"Oh," said Gabi, suddenly deflating. "Uh... I'm not sure how to say..." the Brazilian looked imploringly at David Luiz, who had been watching proceedings silently from his own corner. "David? Celebração?"
"He wants to know if that's your new goal celebration," said David, with a chuckle.
"Goodness, I hope not," KT covered his eyes.
"We want to do a mask celebration, Auba," said Matteo. "Like you did at Dortmund. Can we do that? When you score a goal."
He and Gabi were looking at the Gabonese with such excitement, that Auba's heart would have been made of stone if it hadn't melted.
"Sure, we can do that, you pick a superhero, huh? But I'm being black panther, I've already thought about this."
"What mask celebration?" Asked Laca, looking a little confused.
"Laca, are you serious?" Asked Hector, with a laugh. "How do you, of all people, not know about that?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, smiling a little sheepishly. "What happened?"
"I wore Batman and Robin masks with Marco Reus when I was in Germany," Auba explained to his friend, raising an eyebrow at him pointedly. He knew exactly why Laca didn't have a clue about it - it happened whilst Laca had been pretending Auba didn't exist. But the rest of them didn't know that.
"Wow, I knew something about Auba that Laca didn't," said Ains, with a smile.
Laca had gone quiet, and he now returned to his own locker, sitting down and taking up his shin pads to prepare for training. Auba looked away, not wanting it to become an issue. They were over this, and he didn't want the other guys to pick up on the sudden shift in the mood. He laced up his boots, and looked up, only to be met with Hector's concerned gaze.
"You okay?" Hector mouthed to him, and Auba shrugged, and nodded. He stood up, and left the room, the studs on his football boots clicking on the floor. He needed air, and some space.
Hector's eyes followed the Gabonese, before returning to keep an eye on Laca, who was putting away things into his locker. It wasn't the first time he'd noticed something off about the two of them, but it wasn't like it happened often. For the most part, the two couldn't have been happier in each other's company, but hector had a suspicion something had happened in their past that had been brought to the surface now that they were sharing a team, and sharing a position, after so long of being apart. He didn't want to intrude, however, which was what made him hesitate to interfere. However, if he didn't find someone to talk to about it, he was going to spontaneously combust.
~.~.~.~
Adri was surprised to see Hector entering her store long after opening hours when she knew he'd been training all day, but she welcomed him happily, not one to question when the gods sent her a blessing. He was dripping wet - it was storming like the high seas outside, but he looked happy, which is what counted.
"Aren't you exhausted, mate?" She grinned at him, giving him a one armed hug, since her other was occupied with at least sixty coat hangers. RedLondon was up and running again, having all but recovered from the break in last month.
"I'm dead on my feet," Hector chuckled at his friend, taking off his rain coat, and shaking out his hair. "I just needed someone to talk to. How was your day?"
He hoisted himself up onto the counter with a sigh, leaning back on his hands contentedly, and closing his eyes.
"Better than yours, by the looks of it," she eyed him. "Arteta's trying to kill ya?"
"Hmm," he hummed, sleepily. "But it's okay, coz we're gonna beat City next week."
Adriana chuckled at him, and then laughed louder as a sudden clap of thunder startled him.
"I had so many high school kids in here this afternoon, it's not even funny," she shook her head. "They don't buy anything, they just cause chaos, it's lowkey annoying but I deal with it."
"Hey, we were those kids once," Hector reminded her, with a gentle smile. "Remember the fashion disaster game? Try on the most ridiculous outfit you can find."
Adri smiled, glancing at him.
"You're not wrong. And we rocked most of those outfits, anyway. Well, I didn't kick them out or anything, I just stayed in my corner folding my new trench coats. Hey, you want to see them? They came today!"
Hector sat up straight, suddenly excited.
"What? Yes! Do they look good?"
"Of course they look good," the blonde grinned, disappearing into the back room. She returned with a big box, before plonking it down on the counter beside Hector. "Would you like to do the honours?"
Hector opened up the box, and took out the creamy white faux leather garment, examining the stitching, and the pockets about halfway down. He held it up in front of him to inspect it at arms length.
"Damn girl, this is incredible! Is there a black one?"
Adri chuckled, and nodded her head.
"They're in there somewhere," she gestured to the back room. "I just haven't got to the box yet."
Hector was carefully laying the coat back into the box again, and Adri smiled at him.
"Your enthusiasm is admirable for someone who's sleepwalking," she said. "I just realised you never said what you wanted to say when you came in."
"Oh yeah," Hector nodded, frowning a little. "I just... this isn't something I can talk to my teammates about, you know? Since it concerns some of them. And you're the only person I know who is simultaneously a good listener, and not a gossip."
"Damn, okay, this is serious," said Adri, placing the remainder of her coat hangers down on top of the box. "Tell me."
"It's just... there's no easy way to put this... I think something's up between Auba and Laca."
"What? Why?" Adri frowned. "Those two never fight. Or even argue."
"I know," the Spaniard nodded. "And it's not anything big this time, in the sense that they've managed to hide it, mostly. I honestly think I'm the only person that's noticed at this point."
"What have you noticed?"
"Every so often, we'll be talking about something completely normal, and they'll both just go quiet, and won't look at each other. Then today, we were talking about how Auba used to do mask celebrations back in the day, when he was at Dortmund, you know?"
Adriana nodded, motioning for him to continue.
"Well, Laca didn't have a clue that it had ever happened. And we were all joking around with him, because we couldn't believe there was something he didn't know about Auba, since they're literally inseparable. Two minutes prior Laca had been teasing Auba about being in love, and then suddenly, this happened, and they both went quiet again, and then Auba just went out for training without him, which he NEVER does. I don't know, it's just wierd, maybe I'm overreacting, but..."
"No," said Adri, patting his arm. "I don't think you are, it is weird. It's almost like things that come up in conversation randomly trigger something that went wrong in their past that they never resolved. Maybe the two of them had an issue with a coach or something? Maybe celebrating with masks on was their thing in high school and Laca's upset that Auba did it without him?"
"Hmm," Hector nodded. "I agree with you, it's something from their past. To be clear, I don't want to interfere with whatever they have going on. I just wanted to confirm I wasn't going crazy."
"It's okay," Adri smiled. "And I get why you can't talk to your teammates about this. If they're trying to hide it, it probably means they don't want it to cause an issue. I'm sure they'll sort it out themselves."
Hector smiled at her, stretching out an arm in her direction.
"Come here so I can give you an appreciation hug," he said, and Adri giggled, allowing him to pull her closer and embrace her. "Sorry to be such a downer, I know you're excited about your new products and all."
"Hey, I'm here for you, you know that," she replied, turning to look at him. Their gazes locked, and Adri felt as though she couldn't look away, feeling captivated by the depth of emotion in his brown eyes. "Friends forever, huh?" She murmured, her eyes flicking to his lips almost of their own accord.
Hector moved his hand to tuck a stray piece of blonde hair behind her ear, the tips of his fingers running down the line of her jaw, before falling to her waist again.
"Adri I don't know if I should kiss you or not," he mumbled, and Adri was surprised to hear the nervousness in his voice.
"You do you, Hec," she responded.
Before anything else could happen however, another thunder clap, louder than ever, startled them both, and they looked around in alarm.
"That storm is right overhead," said Hector, with a frown.
Adri sighed, and moved away from him, thinking that maybe that moment was never supposed to happen in the first place.
"Come on, I should head home. I want to turn the power off here incase something happens, and I fancy driving is only going to get worse as the night goes on."
"You're probably right," Hector muttered, standing up, and reaching for his raincoat. "Hey, thanks for listening to me ranting."
"Aw it wasn't even ranting," Adri smiled at him. "Plus you got to see my new trench coat, so..."
"Speaking of, you might need a coat out there."
"It's alright, I've got one. Good night, Hec!"
"Night," the Spaniard responded.
The door clicked shut behind him, and Adri sighed, suddenly feeling more alone in the empty store than she had done before he had entered.
A/N: Allow me for practicing my Portuguese on you lot.
Also Hec and Adri are precious beans but sorry not today ;)
Please vote if you enjoyed! <3
-Jord