Downtown (auston matthews x oc)

-fourteen-

𝖠𝗎𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗇

As much as he wanted to kiss Nora-wanted to take care of her and show her how little he cared if she wasn't the super chill cool girl-Auston knew to give her time. Unlike most of the women he wanted to kiss, Nora wasn't starstruck by him. She probably met people a hundred times more famous than him on a daily basis. It was probably a good thing, Auston decided: he could afford to be taken down a couple notches.

Nora grabbed his hand and led him down the hall to her bedroom, which was small and boasted only a full-size bed-decidedly more narrow than the king bed Auston enjoyed at home. As Auston scanned the room, Nora announced, "Wait here."

He turned to look at her, but she was already gone from the room, her bare feet pattering down the hall as she went. Nora's walls were covered in framed photos, plaques, and little flags celebrating various teams, locations, and causes. Nora's bed was neatly made, blue covers tucked at the corners.

On the table just beside the bed was a picture that appeared, Auston presumed, to show Nora and her parents when she was much younger. Auston, too, had a family picture beside his bed: a reminder of his roots in Arizona.

Auston pulled off his coat, folding it over Nora's desk chair. As he did it, Nora came in, shutting the door behind her. In her hands she carried two glasses of water, and tucked beneath her arm was a bag of M&Ms. Auston couldn't help but smile at her as she approached, sitting down on the edge of the bed and holding one of the water glasses out to him.

"Thank you," he remarked with a grin. Nora tilted her head towards the spot beside her, so Auston lowered himself down. He motioned vaguely towards the photograph on her bedside table. "Any siblings?" he inquired.

Nora shook her head and replied, "No, but I always wanted one." She shrugged. "What about you?"

She held out the bag of M&Ms to him, and he took a handful gratefully before telling her, "I've got two sisters, one older and one younger."

"Are you close with them?" Nora asked.

"Yeah, I'd say so," Auston sighed. "I hate being far away from them. I try to be the best brother I can from here," he explained, "but I always wish I could have them around-my folks, too. I'm really close with them."

Nora inquired, "Where do they live?"

"Back in Arizona," Auston explained. "Where I grew up."

Nora clicked her tongue. "I forgot you were from the States," she noted.

"You ever been?" he inquired.

"To America, yeah," she replied with a shrug. "But only Michigan and Maine. I think we went to Florida when I was really young, but I don't remember it." She took a sip of her water before she asked, "Is Arizona nice?"

Auston smiled: he loved talking about Arizona. It was his happy place-his favorite place in the world. "It is," he told Nora. "A lot hotter than here, though."

Nora nodded in understanding. After a moment of silence she concluded, "You're not as big of an asshole as I thought you were."

He nudged her with his shoulder. "Yeah," he agreed, "neither are you."

She giggled and crinkled her nose. It was the cutest thing Auston had ever seen, and he couldn't pull his eyes from her as she took a drink from her water. When she set it down on the bedside table, she held up an M&M and challenged, "If you can catch this in your mouth right now, your next drink at the Castle is on me."

He narrowed his gaze in suspicion. "It's a deal as long as you don't serve me that disgusting shit you gave me last week," he agreed.

"Deal," she replied, and then extended a hand out to him, which he accepted. "Ready?" she prompted, standing up and taking several steps back from him. He nodded and then Nora counted him in. Just before she got to three, though, she launched the M&M directly at Auston's face-so hard that it stung when it bounced off his nose and onto the floor.

"What the hell was that for?" he exclaimed as she smiled at him.

"For knocking on my head like I was a door," Nora declared, her hands on her hips.

"You're dead, Mallone," Auston countered, jumping to his feet. Nora let out a little shriek and side-stepped in an attempt to escape his grasp, but she wasn't fast enough. Auston wrapped one arm around her waist, followed by the other, and heaved her up off the ground as she laughed. He turned, tossing her gently onto the bed and tackling her lightly.

Nora just kept laughing and trying her best to wriggle free of him, but Auston held her tight to his chest until his laughter, too, overtook him, and he lost the strength to keep her down. She rolled over onto her back beside him, breathless. Auston sighed, still chuckling, and then turned his head to look at Nora, who looked back with a smile.

She was beautiful, even in a Bruins t-shirt and plaid pajama shorts, her hair tousled from their brief wrestling bout. Auston would have laid there all night, just to look at her smile.

"Tell me something I don't know about you," Nora prompted then, propping herself up on one elbow as she faced him. "And it can't have anything to do with hockey," she added. After another beat she amended, "And nothing I could read about you on Wikipedia."

Auston sat half-way up, supporting himself on his elbows. "Have you read about me on Wikipedia?" he goaded, grinning.

"Hey, you can ask questions next," Nora retorted. She moved closer, brown eyes wide, and her fingers found the bottom hem of Auston's t-shirt. He laid all the way back down, his head on one of Nora's several pillows. To his surprise, Nora followed his lead, shifting to lay at his side. A little hesitantly, Auston snaked his arm beneath her neck, though once he did it, Nora wasted no time resting her head against his chest with a sigh.

Auston only hoped she didn't notice the rapid pace of his heart beneath her hand. He moved his fingers up and down Nora's arm as she cuddled impossibly closer to him. Just like that, Auston was obsessed.