Downtown (auston matthews x oc)

-seventeen-

𝓝𝓸𝓻𝓪

When Auston had first approached the bar, Nora didn't expect him to linger longer than it took to order a drink, but an hour later, he was still there, chatting with Nora in between patrons. She never wanted him to leave, though she occasionally glanced over at the friends he had come in with, who were watching the situation unfold expectantly.

"You've got some stalkers," Nora noted to Auston as she prepared a drink for the woman next to him.

He shot a look over his shoulder, and the two guys on the couch promptly turned away. Nora laughed as Auston sighed, "Yeah, they're a little weird, but they mean well."

"I'm glad you brought my favorite player," added Nora, taking the customer's credit card and handing over the drink.

Auston ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek and rolled his eyes. "Is that bit ever gonna die?" he inquired.

Nora hummed as she considered it, ultimately concluding, "Eh, probably not." She smiled at him, resting her hands on the bar to take some of the weight off her legs. She continued, "I think it's cute when you get all worked up and jealous."

"I'm never jealous," he replied, though his smirk gave him away.

Nora raised her brows at him. "So you wouldn't mind if I went over and talked to him on my break in a few minutes?" she taunted, only because she knew Auston would take the bait.

"You want to go talk to him on your break?" Auston countered. "When you could be talking to me?"

Nora bit her bottom lip, fighting back a grin in the hopes that Auston wouldn't see through her. The truth was that no, of course she didn't want to talk to William Nylander on her break when she could instead keep talking with Auston. His presence at the bar almost made her wish that she wouldn't get a break at all.

But, as if on cue, Tyra appeared at the end of the bar from the managers' offices upstairs. "Nor," she hollered down the counter, "you're good to take your thirty."

Nora sighed, turning back to Auston. "That means I've officially survived half the night," she announced. "Hopefully I can make it through the next five hours, eh?"

She moved to the end of the bar, offering Trick a pat on the shoulder as she passed him. While she had intended to meet Auston on the other side of the counter, he was at the end of the bar waiting for her when she stepped out of it.

"Come on," she instructed, waving him towards her. "Upstairs."

Auston stammered a moment, apparently searching for a response that Nora gave him no time to find: she was already on her way up the staircase to the managers' suite. Once Auston was with her, she opened the old door and stepped carefully inside. The wooden floor did little to dampen the pounding music below, but it was at least some small refuge from the flashing lights and screaming patrons.

"Sometimes I come up here just to nap on my breaks," Nora remarked as she led Auston down the little hallway to the employee lounge beside the managers' suite.

"I don't blame you," Auston replied, following her closely. He was close enough to place a hand at the small of her back, gentle and tempting.

The lounge was dusty and far from the sophisticated, all-glass persona of the downstairs bar. Fifty or so years ago, the upstairs had been a club of its own—the proof was in the disco ball that still hung haphazardly from the ceiling.

"Sorry it's a little gross in here," Nora remarked, suddenly embarrassed, as if she were at all responsible for the room's decrepit state.

Auston laughed and waited for her to sit down on the old couch before he took a seat beside her. Without really thinking about it, Nora sighed and let her head fall down onto Auston's shoulder. "I don't know how you do this," Auston announced.

"Do what?" asked Nora, eyelids admittedly heavy.

"Work all night like this," he declared. "It makes me worry about you."

Nora lifted her gaze to look at him, rolling her eyes. "No it doesn't," she chided.

He furrowed his brows at her, evidently in disbelief, but moved on, anyway. "We've got another home game tomorrow," he murmured, resting his head against hers now. "You wanna come?"

"What?" Nora chuckled. "You want me to come to your game?"

"Yeah," he replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If you don't work."

Nora didn't know what to say. Did that count as a date? Was Auston Matthews asking her on a date? Nora had hardly looked at a man romantically since her parents' accident—and she was no real stud before that—so she struggled to decipher Auston's intimation.

Apparently, her hesitation lasted too long, because Auston piped up, "Was that a weird thing for me to ask?"

Nora was a little worried her heart was going to pound out of her chest. Either that or she was going to throw up from anxiety. It made her start to question what she was even doing with Auston Matthews anyway—they weren't supposed to like each other. He was arrogant and annoying, and she still hadn't forgiven him for breaking that table when he was drunk.

Still, Nora's fears almost dissipated entirely when Auston's finger slipped under her chin, moving her gaze up to meet his. "Nor," he prompted. "I can tell you're panicking. We can forget I asked." His thumb brushed against her cheek, which had flushed with uncertainty. The touch was so gentle, so honest and genuine that Nora got a little lost in it. Auston's brown eyes flickered across her expression, searching for something, though Nora couldn't say what it was.

"I don't know anything about hockey," she admitted after a moment, stare still on him.

Auston smiled, and butterflies rushed into Nora's stomach. She wanted to kiss him so badly—the way she had last night, but she didn't want to make a mistake that she couldn't take back. Though Auston already seemed like a mistake that she wasn't going to be able to take back.

"That's okay," he chuckled, his fingers still on her cheek. "I can teach you everything sometime. But," he added, "it might help to come get an idea of what's happening."

Before Nora could even process her own thoughts, she heard herself whisper, "Okay."

Auston, surprised, pressed, "Really?"

Nora nodded against him. "Tomorrow, you said?"

"Seven o'clock," he told her with a nod.

Her hand found the bottom hem of his t-shirt, fiddling with it for a moment before she tried, "Will I get to see you after it? Or before? Or anything?"

"Of course," he laughed gently. "To all of it."

Finally, Nora cracked a smile, and Auston smiled back. "Okay," she agreed. "I'd like that."