The training session lasted quite longer than Axel expected, and as soon as it was over, he made his way straight home.
He walked into the house by 5:22 PM, and after closing the door, he staggered to the couch and crashed down on it after dropping his backpack on the table.
"That was something." He sighed before raising his gaze to look at the ceiling.
Their game against Manchester United was fast approaching, but before that, the team had a match against Juventus on Tuesday.
After losing to them the other day, this was their time to make amends but that was a match Axel was going to skip out on just like he had skipped out on the other.
He was left out of the UCL squad because he joined just a few days after their second game against Benfica in the competition.
Gregory really wished that he had just gone ahead and added him, but it was a done deal now and the youngster just had to wait for next season.
"Thinking about this is really frustrating." He sighed before sitting up on the couch.
He was about to get up on his feet when he suddenly heard a knock on the door, and at that moment, his gaze quickly shifted to the door.
"Who could that be now?" He muttered before proceeding to answer the door.
When he opened the door, he didn't have a particular person in mind that he thought he was going to find standing out there and it was sort of good that he didn't because his expectations would have been smashed into a million pieces.
"Alice?" He muttered with a shocked expression on his face.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Spending all that time with Alice answering her questions seemed to have caused him to immediately mistake Aurora for Alice but after hearing her voice, he was convinced that it wasn't her.
'What the heck is she doing here?' He said subconsciously as he slowly scanned her from head to toe.
She was wearing a white jacket to go with her black pants but her hair was let loose and she had a grocery bag in each of her hands.
"What are you doing here?" He inquired as his serious expression suddenly returned to his face.
"Hey, you know when someone you know shows up in front of your house, you should start by saying hi." She retorted, refusing to answer his question.
"Okay, Hi, Aurora." He sighed before clicking his tongue. "Now tell me what you're doing here."
Aurora was quite shocked because she expected him to be a bit stubborn about it and now she was disoriented.
"Well, um…you see, I was just passing by when I decided I should make a stop here and tell you something." Her face was slowly turning red in embarrassment as those words left her lips.
"Huh? Tell me what?" Axel inquired with a confused expression on his face.
"Well….um….I just…."
The truth was that she didn't have anything to tell him, and now she was struggling to make something up.
"Huh?"
"I wanted to tell you that I'm coming to watch the Manchester derby!"
That was the best she could come up with and because it came to her so late, she ended up saying it faster and louder than she wanted to.
Axel didn't really make out anything from the whole thing, in fact, he was a bit weirded out after finding out that was all she wanted to tell him.
"Okay, Ryan told me he was coming to Old Trafford to see the game, I guess you're coming with him then?"
"Yeah." She responded with a nod.
"Alright, then, bye." He said before quickly closing the door.
It looked like Aurora wanted to say something but he pretended not to have noticed.
"What's up with her dropping by here just to tell me that?" He muttered before taking a step away from the door, but just before he could take another step, he heard a knock on the door.
"What now?" He sighed before turning to open the door.
He thought she would be gone by now but she was still standing there in the same spot where he left her with an awkward smile on her face.
"What do you want now?" He inquired before letting out a sigh.
"Hey, do you have anything to eat for dinner tonight?"
That caught him by surprise because her voice sounded so soft and he could tell it was a sincere question.
However, he kept his composure and proceeded to answer reasonably.
"No, not really but I'm planning to go out to eat after resting for a while."
"Oh," Aurora responded before slowly bringing her gaze down to look at the bags in her hands. "I can come inside and make something for you, I'm sure you'll prefer that since it will save you some time and energy."
'Seriously, what are you scheming now?'
"Yeah, you're right, I would prefer that because of the reasons you mentioned but why would you want to cook for me?"
"Do I really need a reason to?"
That was the last response Axel was expecting to get from her.
"But if you need one so badly, your sister told me to take care of you and I am going to do that." She remarked with a hint of assertiveness in her voice.
"Huh? She told you to take care of me?" He muttered with a confused expression on his face.
"Yeah, now move so that I can fulfill my big sister's request." She asserted before forcing her way into the house.
It was more like she just walked past him because Axel didn't resist in any way.
Now that she was inside the house, she began to make her way to the kitchen while Axel just watched her with a confused expression on his face.
"Big sister?"
'When did she start calling her that?'
"Hey, in case you were wondering, we don't need any of this stuff tonight so I can help you with some of them." She said as she slowly unpacked the foodstuff in one of the bags. "It's quite sad that you don't know how to cook, you'll probably cause food poisoning for yourself if you try to do it."
'Yeah, now she's dissing me.'
After dropping everything she needed on the table, she removed her jacket to reveal the black shirt she had on, and now she just needed to find somewhere to put her jacket.
Axel was still standing in the living room when the jacket was suddenly thrust into his hand.
"Please find somewhere to put that for me." She said before turning around to return to the kitchen while tying her head back.
He didn't waste any time in dropping the jacket on the couch.
Once she was inside the kitchen, she tied the apron around her body before picking up the knife to cut some onion.
She was in the middle of doing that when she heard Axel move closer toward her.
"I know just the amount of nutrients you need as an athlete so I can make something both healthy and delicious, trust me…."
Midway through that statement, her words turned cringe to her and now her face was slowly turning red.
"What the heck?" She muttered under her breath before slowly turning around to see that Axel wasn't there and to that she let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness he didn't hear that."
Axel wasn't even there to hear the first word she said because he made his way straight upstairs without looking back.
"I can only handle one Aurora today." He muttered under his breath as he made his way to his room.
______ ______
Forty minutes later, Axel heard a knock on his door and without even thinking about putting a shirt on, he rushed to open the door.
"Hey." He said in between his pants.
He was exhausted after the training session, but for some reason, he started doing push-ups as soon as he got into his room, and now his body was covered with a good amount of sweat.
At that very moment, Aurora froze as soon as her eyes caught sight of his masculine body but it took her just a couple of seconds to snap herself out of it.
"Hey, what are you doing? Put a shirt on!"
"Oh, right." He said before making his way to his bed to pick up his shirt.
'Just what was he doing in there?'
With his sweaty shirt now on his body, he returned to the door to discover that she was further away from him.
"Umm…I'm done with everything but you should really take a bath before coming down to eat." She suggested.
"You don't need to tell me."
"Alright, I'll be waiting downstairs then." She said before turning to leave.
"Hey, Aurora."
"Huh?"
"Thanks for helping me out today, but you're free to go now, I would prefer that since there's no reason for you to stay anymore. Also, your parents must be worried about you."
"Yeah, you're right." She responded before turning to him with a smile but he could tell that was a fake smile. "I'll get out of your home now, I hope you enjoy your meal."
With that said, she quickly made her way downstairs without looking back.
"Finally." Axel let out a sigh of relief before closing the door.