A/N: #Aubaminelli
Next time Auba paid a visit to the coffee shop on Sunshine Terrace, it was busier than he'd ever seen it before. He had not planned this as an idle visit - in fact, he had Laca, Hector, Gabi, and KT with him, and they'd planned on surprising the girls on what ought to have been a quiet Wednesday afternoon. Upon opening the door however, the chaos they were met with rivalled that of the Emirates Stadium an hour before kick off.
Auba immediately abandoned his plans to show the others around (Laca could do it, anyway) and made a bee line for the blonde haired barista. She glanced up as he approached, and although she was obviously tired, gave him a happy smile.
"Boy am I glad to see you," she muttered, in words that could only just be heard above the hubbub.
"What's going on?" Auba asked. "Why is it like a primary school at pick up time?"
"You tell me," Jord shrugged. "There must be some event on nearby, and they've all showed up here. It'd be alright, only Lia forgot to put in our order at the grocery store for our stock this week and didn't realise until about ten minutes ago."
"What do you need? Want me to go on a mission to the store?"
"It's okay," she shook her head. "One of us girls would need to go anyway. Ally's been doing a bunch of gluten free and other dietary foods for us and it makes the shopping list a little confusing."
At that moment, a young boy approached Auba and asked him for a photo. The Gabonese happily obliged, and by the time his attention returned to Jord, Lia and the rest of the guys had joined them.
"Honestly you lot," said Lia, as she added two new orders to the side of the coffee machine, "I love you all to death but you're not making things any better in here. How about we meet you all afterwards to catch up? Adri and Venus were going to meet us as well, and right now I have to go to the grocery store."
"I don't mind," Hector nodded. "I was gonna go meet Adri after this anyway."
"Where were you gonna go after this?" KT wanted to know. "And did you say Vene's gonna be there?"
Lia smirked at the Scotsman, and shook her head.
"You don't mess about, do ya? Venus will be there if you are."
"Sounds good to me!" Kieran grinned at her cheekily.
"Are you sure you don't need help?" Said Auba. "I offered to go shopping but Jord said it's complicated."
"I guess some help wouldn't hurt, if you guys don't mind," Lia shrugged. "Jord, you go with them then, and I'll manage things here."
"Wait, really?" The Australian's eyes widened as she turned to look at her friend. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"Better than you'd be on your own," Lia winked at her. "And it's my fault we're running out of stock anyway."
"Grocery adventure it is then," Auba smiled at his girlfriend, who nodded, moving to take off her apron.
"Wait, are you kicking me out as well then?" Laca pouted. "What did I do to deserve this?"
"You can stay if you sit in the corner and don't cause trouble," Lia smirked at him.
"Can I do an Auba and sit on the bench whilst you make coffees?"
"No! Auba shouldn't be sitting on the bench anyway! It's unhygienic."
"You be careful with my coffee machine, by the way," put in Jordyn. "If I come back and it's broken I'll be very upset."
"I'm gonna make coffee with it, not play basketball with it," said Lia haughtily. "Have you no faith in me?"
"I don't know, I'm just remembering what happened last time—"
"Ah, now there's a story we needn't go into," Lia rolled her eyes, shooing everyone away. "Jord, go before I change my mind!"
The blonde didn't need to be told twice, removing her coat from its hook and replacing it with her apron, and after one last glance at her coffee machine, departed out the back door with Auba, Hector, KT and Gabi hot on her heels.
"What DID happen last time?" Kieran wondered, with a laugh.
"Honestly, Lia will kill all of us if I tell you," smiled Jord, shaking her head.
"She doesn't need to know," reasoned Hector. "None of us will tell her."
"But that ruins the whole point of the story, it's funny because I can laugh at her for it," Jord chuckled. "Sorry. The story of Lia and the coffee machine can wait til another day."
The five of them made the short walk down the road to the local Tesco's, and were glad to make it inside out of the cold. Even Kieran was rubbing his arms, and went so far as to mention that it was a wee bit nippy.
"Oh, so you DO have a heart," said Auba, with a laugh. "I was beginning to believe you were a vampire."
"He's as pale as one," Hector teased him.
"What? I said it's cold! Come on..."
"Kieran, it's freezing," said Gabi, in one of his rare contributions to English conversation.
"See?! Even Gabi says it's cold, in english!" Auba laughed.
Gabi looked proud of himself, as Hector and Auba both patted him on the back.
"It is cold, no?"
"You damn right it's cold," smiled Jord. "It's all but snowing. At least it's warmer inside the store."
"I hope it does snow," said Auba, as Hector grabbed a shopping trolley.
"I don't," Jord snorted.
"You would be a grinch, wouldn't ya," Auba grinned at her.
"I'm not a grinch," the Australian defended herself, with a laugh. "I'm just used to Christmas being the hottest day of the year."
Gabi climbed into the trolley, and Hector and KT began to push it down the aisle of the store.
"What do we need first, Jord?" Asked Hector.
"Let's get the milk first," she said, pulling up the list on her phone. "We need skim milk, full cream, soy, and almond milk."
"You weren't kidding when you said it was confusing," Auba stated. "I didn't realise so many types of milk existed."
"Don't let Ally hear you say that, she'd be horrified!" Said Jord.
The shopping trip turned out to be quite entertaining. They slowly piled all the things on the list into the trolley, making a wall around Gabi, who was still sitting in the middle. The Brazilian picked up everything that was put in, and read the label out to them to practice his English. He could not for the life of him understand why they needed so many different types of flour, despite Hector and Kieran's best efforts to help him. However, he was going well until the guys started to tease him by putting in things that were clearly not used for cooking, for rare English dishes, Brazilian, Australian or otherwise. It wasn't until Jord finally took pity on him, and removed the shoe polish from the trolley did he understand he was being trolled.
"You trust too easily, Gabi," she told him, with a laugh. "No one cooks with shoe polish, doesn't matter what country you come from."
"I can not believe you would try to tell me this," said Gabi, shaking his head at his teammates. However, he was laughing too, and they knew he hadn't taken it seriously. "As soon as I learn correct English I will make jokes with you, ah?"
"You don't need correct English to make us smile, Gabi," said Auba, reaching over to pat him on the back. "And you're doing well, considering how short a time you've been here."
"I was about to say the same thing," nodded Hector. "You already know more English than Alexis ever did."
"Wow, Hector," Auba's eyes widened, and the four teammates laughed at him.
"Who's Alexis?" Wondered Jord, glancing between them.
"Uh, too hard basket," Said KT, his eyes widening.
"How about this, we'll tell you about Alexis when you tell us about Lia with the coffee machine?" Said Hector.
"You realise I can just ask Lia and she'll tell me? Especially if it's to save me from spreading the coffee machine story?"
"Ah, but Lia doesn't know what we know," Auba smirked at her.
"You weren't even there, Auba," Hector rolled his eyes. "I was the only one out of us four."
"And glad of it, by the sounds of things," KT muttered.
"Fine," Jord smiled, and shook her head at them. "Another day, when we're not in the middle of a public place, we'll have story time. Right now, we need to get back to the coffee shop before Lia thinks we've all been kidnapped."
As they approached the coffee shop, Jord quickly realised that the gathering of people on Sunshine Terrace was even worse than before. People were literally spilling out the door of the coffee shop, and even Gabi was frowning in confusion.
"This isn't normal," Hector muttered. "What the hell..."
"Isn't that news people?" Auba wondered.
Jordyn sighed, as the group of them turned down the side street, heading for the back door of the coffee shop. They didn't make it without being seen, however, and suddenly there was a group of people running after them, and the noisy street suddenly became even more loud. Jord retreated almost entirely into her own head, and Auba doubted if she was really seeing or hearing anything that the reporters were yelling at them. He put his arm around her protectively, and held his other hand up as the rest of the guys tried to wave the reporters away. They entered in at the back door, and Auba locked it behind them, before turning his full attention to his girlfriend, taking her face in his hands.
"Hey, are you okay?" He said softly.
She blinked at him a little, and shook her head silently. Auba wasn't sure, but he had a feeling he'd just witnessed her having a panic attack. His own heart clenched that she'd had to deal with the media so soon after they'd gotten together - he'd been hoping to protect her from anything like that for as long as possible. He pressed his lips gently to her forehead, and, ignoring the others, pulled her out of the hallway and into the back room of the coffee shop. He had never been in the room before. There was a table and chairs, and a small couch along one side of the wall. Both of them sat down on the couch, with Jordyn finally coming back to life somewhat, moving to wrap her arms around her boyfriend's torso. Auba smiled a bit, and hugged her back, waiting for her to say something.
"Thanks," she muttered, after a minute. "I don't know what that was."
"Has it happened before?" Auba wondered, drawing back a little to look at her.
Jordyn shook her head, and bit her lip.
"Not really."
"Not really?"
"Well, there was one time... it was when I was staying in the dorm before I moved out into my own apartment. Everyone in there was pressuring me to go to this party that they have at the beginning of the year... everyone goes and it's supposed to be a pretty big deal. I like to think I'm strong enough mentally to say no to things I really don't want to do, but sometimes I can't do that without my body just shutting down on me."
Auba stroked her blonde hair back behind her ear, watching her with concern as she told her story. He shook his head, when she'd finished.
"You are strong, okay? Having a panic attack isn't your fault. Are you sure that's the only time?"
"There were minor incidents in early high school back in Australia," said Jord. "Nothing so bad as today, or the time I just told you about. I just..." she broke off, and sighed a little, before continuing. "I haven't been entirely open with you about my family, and I feel bad because we've been pretty open with each other up until now."
"That's okay," said Auba immediately. "You don't have to tell me if you'd rather not."
"It's just that if the journalist people like we saw out there go putting photos and videos of me up online everywhere and the people back home somehow see it, I'll get called all sorts of names for being out with you guys. I was supposed to be making it on my own out here, they're gonna assume I'm hanging around with people who can give me money."
"Do they know you? Like, at all?" Auba retorted, with a short laugh. "Who are they, is it your parents, or..."
"Not so much my parents, they've always supported me," said Jord. "Although they'll probably be thinking the same thing, they'll appreciate it's my life, and my decisions to make. But it's just friends from high school, grandparents, cousins... everyone else. You can tell me their judgements don't matter, and academically, I know that. But it's still the people I grew up with, and it still hurts."
Auba sighed, and shook his head at her.
"That really sucks Jord. I'm sorry. And now I understand further why you were so hesitant to come to the game at the stadium."
"It's okay," Jord shook her head. "And don't blame yourself for what happened just now, okay? The media's gonna follow you around, I accepted that when I decided to date you."
"You're always one step ahead of me, somehow," Auba chuckled. "How did you know I was gonna apologise for that? Are we telepathic?"
Jordyn laughed, and Auba was relieved to see some of the tension leaving her shoulders.
"I'll leave that to you and Laca," she said. "Nothing comes between you two."
"Speak of the devil..."
Jordyn turned around to see Lia and Laca appearing at the door, looking a little apprehensive about entering the room.
"Are you guys okay?" Lia spoke quietly. "We can go if we're interrupting..."
"No, it's okay," said Jord. "We were just talking."
"Auba," said Laca. "What is going on? Why have we got so many news people here? Normally we can walk down the street without being bombarded."
"Your guess is as good as mine," the Gabonese shrugged. "I'm sure we'll find out by the end of the day on social media."
"True," Laca shrugged.
"Thanks for getting all the shopping, by the way," said Lia.
"No worries," Jord nodded, standing up. "What happened though, why are you out here?"
"Mr and Mrs Kravitz showed up," said Lia, with a shrug. "They kicked out all the media, and told me to go take a break for the rest of the day. It was the stuff of legends, you should have seen it!"
"Mr and Mrs who?" Auba wanted to know.
"It's the old couple that owns the shop," Jord explained. "They used to run it all by themselves, now they only do it when we're not working."
"They heard it was crazy, and came to the rescue," Lia smiled.
"What, so they just kicked everybody out?" Jord wondered. "How..."
"Like I said, you should have seen it," Lia giggled. "Two old dears beating off the masses with an umbrella and a frying pan. They're the sweetest, really."
All of them laughed at the mental image this conjured up.
"And Ally?" Asked Jord.
"She's finishing off her cupcakes, and then she's done for the day as well. So apparently we will get to go out today after all! If you want to, that is."
"I'm good," Jord nodded. "Really, I am. Although I might take the frying pan with me, see if it proves effective against the journalists outside as well."
A/N: and the frying pan meme lives on :)