(no subject)
TITLE: Hide Behind Your Eyes - Chapter Five
RATING: R
SUMMARY: It hurts all the time when you don’t answer my calls and don’t have the time to remember how it was.
FANDOM: Spanish Football (Ramos/Torres)
STATUS: In Progress (5/?)
PROMPT: #096 (Training)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything. This story is a work of fiction and came from the deepest darkest corner of my imagination.
*
~*Part Five*~*
#096 - TRAINING (writer’s choice)
A whistle awoke him.
Fernando startled awake, surprised by the sudden noise. It took him a moment to realise where he was and even longer to discover that the horrible piercing sound came from the front of the plane where their coach stood looking out over them cheerfully. He blew the whistle again and there were disgruntled grumbles from around the plane as everyone poked their heads into the aisles to see what was going on.
Fernando ran a weary hand over his face struggling to wake up and pull his body into consciousness. It felt like he was wading through quicksand, although it probably didn’t help that his body was almost on the floor. Somewhere in his snooze he must have slipped down in his chair and the result was that he was so far down his body was almost horizontal. Grunting slightly with the effort Fernando pushed himself back into his seat, his back and neck protesting painfully at the sudden movement.
“Welcome to Austria, gentleman,” their coach called once he had the teams full attention. “We have a week of training. Seven days to prepare for the cup. Let’s make the most of our time here, we have some great facilities at our disposal. I want you all off the plane, and ready to begin first thing tomorrow morning.”
Fernando snuck a peak at Sergio from the corner of his eye as the speech and subsequent list of instructions continued. Seemingly much more relaxed, Sergio was upright in his chair with a pen in one hand and a newspaper opened to the crossword in the other.
Perhaps now was the right time to break the silence. Now that their initial defences had been dismantled it would be easy. All he would have to do was point out that the answer to three down was watermelon. But despite the thought Fernando kept his mouth shut in favour of bucking his seatbelt as the plane began its decent. There was no point breaking the silence, it would just ruin everything that he had worked for.
*
Day 1...
Sergio was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a morning person.
Yawning widely, Sergio ran a hand over his face and tilted his head back to the sky. It was the crack of dawn and he was pretty sure he was still half asleep. His wake up call that morning had been someone crashing into his room and making a huge racket with a pot and pan. The lucky bastard had disappeared before Sergio could reach out and strangle him, but that was okay because the “alarm” continued its way down the hallway becoming fainter and fainter before stopping completely. It was tempting to curl back down into his blankets and sleep until noon, but the first day of training called, so somehow he had managed to roll out of bed and throw on some clothes. He wasn’t exactly sure how he managed in the clothing department, but no one was pointing out that he had his shirt on back to front, so the mission must have been a success.
“I feel like death,” David grumbled.
Sergio opened his eyes and gazed at the light pink sky. It was still early, far too early for the sun to make an appearance. The result was a very sleepy and bleary eyed Spanish team standing around in a circle too tired to converse in much more than mumbles and grunts. Fernando was the only one who looked truly awake. He was bouncing on his toes anxiously like he had just consumed six cups of coffee and couldn’t wait to get started.
Sergio had the vague notion that Fernando had been awake for hours just waiting for the rest of the team to join him.
*
Day 2...
Fernando was beginning to think he could make it through the first couple of days of training without even looking at Sergio let alone speaking to him.
Perhaps this wouldn’t be as hard as he thought.
*
Day 4...
It was incredible.
How in the world was he doing it?
How was it possible to disappear every time he entered a room, or slip out of earshot every time they crossed paths.
Sergio stared at Fernando from across the mess hall unsure whether to be impressed or offended.
*
Day 5...
All good things had to come to an end right?
Fernando couldn’t pretend to be surprised. It made sense that they were partnered together. They were the same height, and pretty close in weight and build.
Fernando pushed his hair out of his eyes and scratched the nape of his neck awkwardly. All around them their team mates had started their exercises, and here they stood still two feet apart barely being able to look at each other let alone touch each other. The silence between them was so thick Fernando felt like he could reach out and grab it. He wasn’t used to feeling awkward around Sergio, their personalities had always meshed, right from day one, this awkwardness was new and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Of course, it probably didn’t help that they still hadn’t broken their four month silence.
Sergio let out a breath and Fernando’s eyes flicked to his face thinking that Sergio was about to do the inevitable and say something. But he didn’t, he just extended his hands in a cupped position waiting patiently for Fernando’s foot.
Unable to think of any better way to proceed in the awkwardness, Fernando lifted his leg and stretched out his foot to land in Sergio’s hands. It landed heavily and Fernando cringed as Sergio’s knees bent automatically to take the weight. Why was everything that had never been awkward so incredibly unbearable now? Fernando’s mind raced, his brain panicking in one big muddle of thoughts, wondering hurriedly if his leg was too heavy or if he was less flexible than he was before. Last time they had trained together they had been laughing and joking together... things were very different now.
Sergio was looking at his knee, a small frown creased between his eyebrows. Fernando followed his gaze and swallowed when he realised what he was looking at. It was the two tiny holes, the ones from his surgery. He opened his mouth to say something, but promptly closed it and swapped legs to get away from Sergio’s curious eyes.
“Swap over please gentlemen.”
Fernando dropped his leg and held out his hands, taking Sergio’s foot when it was offered and holding it steady as Sergio stretched forward, hands braced on his thighs.
“Did it hurt?”
For a second, Fernando thought he had imagined it. But a quick glance at Sergio’s face confirmed he was waiting for an answer. How ironic that their first words exchanged in months would be those. Did it hurt? Yes it did, it all did, it hurt then and it hurt now, but that pain had nothing to do with the surgery. “It was okay,” Fernando finally replied.
Sergio swapped legs and stretched out before mumbling quietly, “I called, you know? The day of the surgery.”
Fernando dropped his eyes to Sergio’s boot, tracing his eyes over the white and gold leather, “yeah I know.” His mother had been the one who had answered his phone whilst he was still under anaesthetic.
“You were still in recovery so...” Sergio trailed off.
“I got the message,” Fernando put in softly. “Thanks.”
*
It was like trying to converse with a brick wall. Sergio didn’t even know why he was trying. Surely four months without any form of communication was enough to convince him that their relationship was well and truly over. Fernando had made it very clear that he had nothing to say to him; stupid really, surely Fernando wouldn’t have avoided all his calls if he had predicted their reunion would be this god damn uncomfortable.
“Quads!”
Sergio dropped his foot and stretched out his right quad hesitating ever so slightly before resting a hand lightly on Fernando’s shoulder for balance.
There was a brief moment of silence between them before Sergio asked bluntly, “so why didn’t you ever return my calls?”
PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR
RATING: R
SUMMARY: It hurts all the time when you don’t answer my calls and don’t have the time to remember how it was.
FANDOM: Spanish Football (Ramos/Torres)
STATUS: In Progress (5/?)
PROMPT: #096 (Training)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything. This story is a work of fiction and came from the deepest darkest corner of my imagination.
*
~*Part Five*~*
#096 - TRAINING (writer’s choice)
A whistle awoke him.
Fernando startled awake, surprised by the sudden noise. It took him a moment to realise where he was and even longer to discover that the horrible piercing sound came from the front of the plane where their coach stood looking out over them cheerfully. He blew the whistle again and there were disgruntled grumbles from around the plane as everyone poked their heads into the aisles to see what was going on.
Fernando ran a weary hand over his face struggling to wake up and pull his body into consciousness. It felt like he was wading through quicksand, although it probably didn’t help that his body was almost on the floor. Somewhere in his snooze he must have slipped down in his chair and the result was that he was so far down his body was almost horizontal. Grunting slightly with the effort Fernando pushed himself back into his seat, his back and neck protesting painfully at the sudden movement.
“Welcome to Austria, gentleman,” their coach called once he had the teams full attention. “We have a week of training. Seven days to prepare for the cup. Let’s make the most of our time here, we have some great facilities at our disposal. I want you all off the plane, and ready to begin first thing tomorrow morning.”
Fernando snuck a peak at Sergio from the corner of his eye as the speech and subsequent list of instructions continued. Seemingly much more relaxed, Sergio was upright in his chair with a pen in one hand and a newspaper opened to the crossword in the other.
Perhaps now was the right time to break the silence. Now that their initial defences had been dismantled it would be easy. All he would have to do was point out that the answer to three down was watermelon. But despite the thought Fernando kept his mouth shut in favour of bucking his seatbelt as the plane began its decent. There was no point breaking the silence, it would just ruin everything that he had worked for.
*
Day 1...
Sergio was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a morning person.
Yawning widely, Sergio ran a hand over his face and tilted his head back to the sky. It was the crack of dawn and he was pretty sure he was still half asleep. His wake up call that morning had been someone crashing into his room and making a huge racket with a pot and pan. The lucky bastard had disappeared before Sergio could reach out and strangle him, but that was okay because the “alarm” continued its way down the hallway becoming fainter and fainter before stopping completely. It was tempting to curl back down into his blankets and sleep until noon, but the first day of training called, so somehow he had managed to roll out of bed and throw on some clothes. He wasn’t exactly sure how he managed in the clothing department, but no one was pointing out that he had his shirt on back to front, so the mission must have been a success.
“I feel like death,” David grumbled.
Sergio opened his eyes and gazed at the light pink sky. It was still early, far too early for the sun to make an appearance. The result was a very sleepy and bleary eyed Spanish team standing around in a circle too tired to converse in much more than mumbles and grunts. Fernando was the only one who looked truly awake. He was bouncing on his toes anxiously like he had just consumed six cups of coffee and couldn’t wait to get started.
Sergio had the vague notion that Fernando had been awake for hours just waiting for the rest of the team to join him.
*
Day 2...
Fernando was beginning to think he could make it through the first couple of days of training without even looking at Sergio let alone speaking to him.
Perhaps this wouldn’t be as hard as he thought.
*
Day 4...
It was incredible.
How in the world was he doing it?
How was it possible to disappear every time he entered a room, or slip out of earshot every time they crossed paths.
Sergio stared at Fernando from across the mess hall unsure whether to be impressed or offended.
*
Day 5...
All good things had to come to an end right?
Fernando couldn’t pretend to be surprised. It made sense that they were partnered together. They were the same height, and pretty close in weight and build.
Fernando pushed his hair out of his eyes and scratched the nape of his neck awkwardly. All around them their team mates had started their exercises, and here they stood still two feet apart barely being able to look at each other let alone touch each other. The silence between them was so thick Fernando felt like he could reach out and grab it. He wasn’t used to feeling awkward around Sergio, their personalities had always meshed, right from day one, this awkwardness was new and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Of course, it probably didn’t help that they still hadn’t broken their four month silence.
Sergio let out a breath and Fernando’s eyes flicked to his face thinking that Sergio was about to do the inevitable and say something. But he didn’t, he just extended his hands in a cupped position waiting patiently for Fernando’s foot.
Unable to think of any better way to proceed in the awkwardness, Fernando lifted his leg and stretched out his foot to land in Sergio’s hands. It landed heavily and Fernando cringed as Sergio’s knees bent automatically to take the weight. Why was everything that had never been awkward so incredibly unbearable now? Fernando’s mind raced, his brain panicking in one big muddle of thoughts, wondering hurriedly if his leg was too heavy or if he was less flexible than he was before. Last time they had trained together they had been laughing and joking together... things were very different now.
Sergio was looking at his knee, a small frown creased between his eyebrows. Fernando followed his gaze and swallowed when he realised what he was looking at. It was the two tiny holes, the ones from his surgery. He opened his mouth to say something, but promptly closed it and swapped legs to get away from Sergio’s curious eyes.
“Swap over please gentlemen.”
Fernando dropped his leg and held out his hands, taking Sergio’s foot when it was offered and holding it steady as Sergio stretched forward, hands braced on his thighs.
“Did it hurt?”
For a second, Fernando thought he had imagined it. But a quick glance at Sergio’s face confirmed he was waiting for an answer. How ironic that their first words exchanged in months would be those. Did it hurt? Yes it did, it all did, it hurt then and it hurt now, but that pain had nothing to do with the surgery. “It was okay,” Fernando finally replied.
Sergio swapped legs and stretched out before mumbling quietly, “I called, you know? The day of the surgery.”
Fernando dropped his eyes to Sergio’s boot, tracing his eyes over the white and gold leather, “yeah I know.” His mother had been the one who had answered his phone whilst he was still under anaesthetic.
“You were still in recovery so...” Sergio trailed off.
“I got the message,” Fernando put in softly. “Thanks.”
*
It was like trying to converse with a brick wall. Sergio didn’t even know why he was trying. Surely four months without any form of communication was enough to convince him that their relationship was well and truly over. Fernando had made it very clear that he had nothing to say to him; stupid really, surely Fernando wouldn’t have avoided all his calls if he had predicted their reunion would be this god damn uncomfortable.
“Quads!”
Sergio dropped his foot and stretched out his right quad hesitating ever so slightly before resting a hand lightly on Fernando’s shoulder for balance.
There was a brief moment of silence between them before Sergio asked bluntly, “so why didn’t you ever return my calls?”
PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR