Chapter 20: Brand New Day

After a couple of minutes, the two siblings sat down together to eat.

Axel had been starving the whole time but he refused to say anything about it. However, that was quite obvious with the way he was stuffing his mouth now.

While he was doing that, Ariel just watched him from the other side of the table with a warm smile on her face.

Axel tried to ignore her gaze and just focus on finishing his meal, but after a few minutes, he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, when are you going to stop staring at me and start eating your food? It's getting creepy." 

"Hmph, you seem to be enjoying my chicken stew." She replied with that warm smile still on her face.

As soon as Axel heard that, he suddenly dropped the piece of chicken he was about to put in his mouth.

"To be honest, it tastes sort of bland but I'm hungry so I'll just manage it. Would have been a different case if I wasn't this hungry." 

Those words hit the right spot just like he wanted them to because the smile on his sister's face seemed to have suddenly vanished.

With a smug look on his face, he proceeded to put the piece of chicken he had dropped earlier in his mouth, but before he could do that, she stretched her hand and slapped it back into his plate before proceeding to grab his plate and whatever that was still in there.

"Hey, wait." He said before grabbing her hand to stop her from taking it.

A sharp piercing gaze was all she needed to get him to pull his hand back with a nervous expression on his face.

The aura he could feel around her was one he rarely saw, the aura of a furious wolf ready to devour him should he make the wrong move.

'I wasn't expecting her to get angry.'

"Since it's bland, you can just get up and go to bed, I'll eat what's left of my bland cooking." She sounded quite annoyed and that was the reason why Axel couldn't look her in the eye at that moment. 

"Hey, sis, calm down, that was just a joke, I didn't mean to upset you or anything."

"And?"

"I'm sorry." It was quite hard for him to force those words out.

After hearing him say that, Ariel suddenly burst into a feat of laughter which left him quite confused.

"For someone who acts tough all the time, you're quite gullible. Did you really think I was going to get upset over a comment like that? I was just messing with you."

"Please, can I have my food back now?" He asked after rolling his eyes.

"Sure, here you go." She replied before pushing it back to him. "And since you seem to be enjoying my cooking from my observations, you get to eat it three more times tomorrow."

That revelation caused Axel's eyes to suddenly widen in surprise as he turned his gaze to her.

"You're saying?"

"Yeah, I'm not leaving until Monday." She replied with a nod.

He didn't know when it happened, but a bright smile suddenly appeared on his face and Ariel refrained from pointing it out because she knew he was going to try to hide it.

_______ _______

Axel got up early the next morning and despite his injury, he got ready and made his way downstairs for his morning training session.

Because of his injury, running was out of the question for today, but there were other things he could do.

He made his way to his private gym, and after laying some mats on the floor, he kicked off his pay with some sit-ups.

Even something like that was a bit harsh on his injured knee but it wasn't going to be as painful as anything else that he was going to try so he kept doing it.

"Of course, I was going to get injured in my second game as a professional." He muttered under his breath before slowly pulling himself up. "But it's a good thing it wasn't anything that serious."

He was only able to complete thirty-two sit-ups, after that, he got up on his feet and began to stretch his body.

"We're up against Brentford next, that's one of the best teams to farm assists against, but something tells me I won't be given enough minutes in that game or in the worst-case scenario, be completely excluded from it."

After muttering those words to himself, he joined both of his hands together and pushed his body to the left before pushing it to the right.

"Two matches, zero assists registered." He muttered before he placed his hand against the wall and kicked his right foot back and forth slowly. "But I have a goal at least."

His gaze shifted to the treadmill at that moment as an idea suddenly popped into his head.

'If I turn it to the lowest speed and keep my hands on the rail, I should get a little bit of running done.'

That was something anybody in his condition would think of and he proceeded to do it.

He walked on the treadmill for about twenty minutes before proceeding to stagger his way out of the garage.

The sun was in clear view now and the City of Manchester was starting to feel its effects.

One of his daily activities included sitting or running under the morning sun to get that fresh dose of Vitamin D and today, it was going to be sitting for him.

Other than the benefit of the early morning sun, he liked its tingly feeling on his skin so he enjoyed taking it in along with the new day's fresh air.

"This would have been a completely great day if this injury on my right knee didn't exist." He sighed.

"Well, you seem to be enjoying yourself."

He quickly turned his gaze to the door where he heard the voice come from to see his sister standing there.

She was still in her white pajamas and her hair was sort of messy from just waking up.

"Yeah, it's a brand new day so why not enjoy yourself? You don't get to live twice after all." He replied before raising his gaze to look at the sky.

"Now, you're talking like an old man," Ariel uttered with a little chuckle before stepping down on the first step in front of the house.

He didn't reply to that because his mind shifted to something the moment he said that, and he was trying to shake it off.

"Anyway, I hope you haven't forgotten our plan today."

"Huh?" The midfielder muttered with a confused expression on his face before turning his gaze to her.

"You promised to go shopping with me today and then we'll go grab lunch and spend the rest of the day together." She disclosed.

"Huh? I made a promise like that?" He muttered under his breath before bringing his gaze down.

'Oh, yeah, I was feeling sleepy when she asked that and I just said yes, she used the power of sleep against me, evil witch.' He said inwardly before shooting his gaze up at her.

"I see you haven't forgotten." She smiled.

"Yeah, but can't you go do all that stuff with your boyfriend or someone else? I don't really feel like going anyway today."

He made sure to open his mouth wide for a yawn while stretching his hands to get that message across properly.

"What boyfriend? You know I don't have a boyfriend and you clearly know why." There was a hint of aggression in her voice but that didn't extend to her face.

"Oh, yeah, that." He muttered with an awkward smile on his face as he slowly placed his hand on the back of his head.

'But that wasn't really my fault.'