0.20|when winning a bet|

0.20|from Sabah's tape-recorder: when winning a bet|

"Why are you so freaking late?" Auburn asked the moment they sat down at 'their' table. I stifled a laugh.

Anthony took off his Real Madrid jacket to reveal an auburn t-shirt inside. An auburn t-shirt. Can believe how much they are meant to be? He reached up with his slender fingers to sweep his hair to one side, "Uh, everyone was celebrating and it was my debut so I couldn't have left earlier."

I asked with a sly smile, "Were there any models there?"

"No," he said easily, without catching my drift. "Just Mister, that is, Coach Benitez, all the players and their family members." He smiled hugely, "I think the people like me and Iwassonervous but," he laughed, "it actually went pretty good. I just can't believe the debut was good. Have you seen my passing average? It's so-"

He stopped suddenly, "Sorry, I don't want to bore you two with statistics..."

"Are you crazy? It's your day and you rocked it. Go one, we want to hear all the statistics," Auburn looked at him warmly after giving me a glare for having mentioned her jealousy-inspired-imagined-model.

When the coffee was done, I set out three cups and while I was pouring out the dark, aromatic liquid, I looked at Anthony whose fingers were as usual mere millimetres away from Auburn's. "So, Anthony, did your family members come to see you? Are they here?"

His smiled immediately dropped and he swallowed, looking out of the window, sad grey eyes unfocused on the dark alley outside. Almost immediately I wished I hadn't asked the question. He turned and looked at me, with a poorly attempted smile, "No. They were-uh-busy." He took a deep breath, "Besides, my brother had a match today so coming here would have meant missing it..."

"Your brother is a footballer?" Auburn frowned. "Is he famous?"

"Mikhail Kroff? Plays for the German National Team and Bayern Munich?" Anthony replied calmly.

I looked at Auburn's face to judge if Mikhail was a huge deal which judging by her shocked, open mouth, I guessed he was.

Her violet-blue eyes were round as she exclaimed, "Mikhail Kroff is your brother!? Of course, you two have the same surname. Wow, he's a legend already." She explained to me, "The main reason Germany won the World Cup was Kroff. He's Germany's best striker and I don't need to actually follow Bundesliga to know that. No wonder you're so talented, Tony."

Anthony looked as if he would pass out, "Th-thanks." He tried to cover up his discomfort by looking very interestedly at the table cloth as his pale fingers drew some unseen pattern on the cloth.

Auburn bit her lip, sensing that something was wrong. She reached for his hand and held it between both of hers, "But I suppose, after today, people are going to refer to Mikhail as Anthony Kroff's brother."

Anthony looked up catching her honest stare. His eyebrows were raised in disbelief as his lips parted for words that wouldn't come out.

She shrugged, "It's the truth." And the best thing about the girl was that you knew when you looked at her that she absolutely, totally, remarkably believed it to be true.

So did I.

Anthony blushed as he finally broke out his shock and gave a small smile, his pale cheeks colouring to a pastel pink, "Danke." He didn't draw back his hand. Instead, he slowly reached with his other hand to cover hers.

"Coffee is here. Ta-da," I placed the tray between them.

They looked away shyly, drawing their hands back.

"Here's one for the beautiful lady," I handed Auburn the mug, "and here's one for the handsome-oops!" The coffee mug went sprawling out of my hand and within a second, hot, dark coffee drenched Anthony's thin t-shirt.

He yelped and jumped up as the liquid scalded his skin. Reflexively, he pulled the t-shirt over his head and began to dab his skin.

And of course, he had a well-formed six pack. Yes, I just won the bet. Yay!

I smirked at Auburn who was eying the same. She caught me smirking and shook her head in disbelief at my act.

"Anthony, are you okay?" she asked with concern, looking at his already reddening chest. I hope our bet was flashing in her head. You lost, little girl.

He yelped again and covered his chest. He had totally forgotten in the heat and pain that we were there too. He blushed to the colour of beetroot, "Carlotta, do you have something-?"

I nodded and pretended to run to the back where my rooms were. Instead I just stood in the kitchen and peeped to see what was happening.

"Anthony, please don't behave like a six-year-old. Turn around," Auburn stood with a bunch of wet paper towels. She waited and then said in her teacher-voice "or you'll have a deep red scar for the rest of y-"

She had stopped speaking when he had turned towards her. He still looked anywhere but at her but she was blushing now, as she followed the ridges, the ups and downs, of his well-formed body. They didn't often stand very close but that day you could see that she only reached up till Anthony's shoulder.

She looked up at him, as she placed her left hand, testily, slowly, softly, on his right shoulder, fingers closing around the pale muscle that covered his collar bone. They visibly shivered. With fingers that trembled slightly she wiped the coffee off his chest.

He swore softly, "Scheiße, ich kann nicht nehmen dies für lange, schön."

We never got to know what he said because Auburn never asked him. Refusing to look up now, letting her dark unkempt hair cover her eyes, she seemed to have lost herself somewhere. That would make the number of things she lost up to two: the bet and herself. Hehe.

Anthony finally stopped her hand, "Its freezing. My skin feels like rubber. I'm sure your fingers are cold too."

Of course, he was sure. He could feel them all over his skin. I felt a pang of guilt when I looked at the slight burn over his chest. I had not wanted to hurt him. The coffee was prepared such that it wasn't the usual hot. Slightly warm was what I was hoping for but obviously it had been pretty warm, judging by his burn.

She nodded and without looking at him, she walked to the dustbin, letting the damp, cold paper towels disentangle themselves form her fingers and fall into the wicker basket.

I sped to my rooms before she could catch my shadow on the floor. When I returned with a shirt, Auburn was sitting on the table, legs dangling and mouth set in deep thought while Anthony seemed to be babbling awkwardly, "-you seriously have a British simcard!? Won't the bills be sky-high? How are you even surviving without internet on your phone?"

I shook my head. I leave them at the most potentially romantic moment and they talk about simcards? Hopeless.

"Here you go," I threw the shirt at him.

He smiled gratefully, "Danke. Wait a sec," he peered at the shirt, "but this is your shirt."

"It's pretty loose."

"It's floral!"

"So?"

"How am I supposed to go to the team hotel wearing this?" he looked at the hideously pink and orange floral shirt. I had bought it at a thrift store but then abandoned it to the back of my cupboard because it was so horribly colourful but it was either this or my long frocks for him.

"You still live at the hotel?" I tried changing the topic. "When are you buying a house for yourself? Are you planning to stay at the team hotel all season?" I mimicked his voice, "Won't the bills be sky-high?"

Auburn was laughing at the shirt, "You'll actually look quite adorable in it, Tony." She ruffled his hair lovingly.

He made an exasperated noise and muttered, "I hate you, guys."

But he wore it anyway.

[how was the chapter, everyone? i'm dying for some feedback so go ahead vote+comment and let me know what you thought of this chapter :D :D

Translations-

German: Scheiße, ich kann nicht nehmen dies für lange, schön.

English: Shit, I can't take this for long, beautiful. (OMG YES YOU READ IT RIGHT!)

German: Danke.

English: Thank you.

soo, milestone chapter for #aubony i would say. right, right? you know what this means, right? PARTAYYY!

ilyall <3