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The season is starting soon and the team were enthusiast about the arrival of one and only Cristiano Ronaldo. Paulo himself has never been a big fan, but then that amazing overhead kick in the UCL quarter-finals against his team happened and Paulo just can’t shut up about it. Juventus lost, but Paulo had gone home with full admiration towards the former Madridista.
Paulo also know it is no secret that his National Team Captain is deeply involved with Ronaldo. But he doesn’t want to admit that he had been buggering Leo all World Cup-long with questions about the Portuguese. Leo had only smiled and said “You can ask him yourself, but later, Joya.”
What he expected back then was Leo going to bring him to Ronaldo, not the Portuguese going to be his own teammate starting this summer. Leo knew all along.
“There he is,” Giorgio say with clear anticipation as the roar outside the stadium starts getting louder. The Captain was told to be the first to greet Ronaldo, so he steps outside the lounge area to meet the said man.
So Paulo spends his time waiting for his turn to meet the Portuguese as a teammate for the first time. But two hours later, nobody calls for him.
Paulo is upset now, kicking the balls with a visible pout on his face. Soon it will be time for Ronaldo to talk with the press, means he won’t get the chance to meet the new-comer today.
Also Douglas’ teasing isn’t helping, that’s why Paulo gives the Midfielder a ball to the crotch, which Douglas manages to dodge. As his friend is laughing his ass off, a man in suit comes in, asking for Paulo. He is confused, the man isn’t from the Juventus’ team nor official, but Paulo follows the man anyway.
The mystery man leads him towards the private lounge room near the ballroom area where Ronaldo’s conference going to take place. Is he going to take him to meet Ronaldo? Paulo thinks excitedly.
He enters the room the man showed him with anticipation. But who he sees next of course isn’t someone he expected- at all.
“Leo?!” Paulo approaches the older Argentine with smile so wide, then continues to give Leo a big warm hug. It is a wonder how Leo manages to go here unnoticed by the reporters and paparazzi. Probably because Leo is wearing an oversized hoodie with baggy blue jeans.
“Hey, Joya,” Leo replies, smile showing his dimples. “Have you meet your Ronaldo?” he teases Paulo.
“Leoo,” Paulo whines in return. That gained him a laugh from the Barcelona Captain.
Paulo is just about to complain as someone open the door behind him.
“Mi amor, where is my conference suit, I—oh,” the heavy Portuguese accented Spanish stops midsentence as the speaker spots Paulo. “I’m sorry, Leo, I didn’t know you have a guest.”
“No, Cris, he is your guest. This is Paulo, but you already know,” Leo says as he winked towards Paulo.
“Yes, of course. Dybala- Paulo, nice to meet you, teammate,” Ronaldo says to him, with the trademarked charming smile, while offering his hand towards Paulo, which Paulo immediately takes with a speechless ‘nice to meet you too’.
Ronaldo turns to Leo and proceeds to ask Leo about the whereabouts of his suit.
“Calm down, Ronaldo, it’s at the back,”
“They told me to hurry up, the medias are going live soon,” Ronaldo said in a hurry as he discards his clothing one by one. Paulo isn’t sure where to look as Ronaldo walk around with only his CR7 trunks on.
And he realizes a little bit too late, that he isn’t supposed to be here now. He’s about to excuse himself as Leo calls him out from the back. “Joya, wait there for a bit.”
So Paulo does. He watches the couple dashing around here and there, searching for Ronaldo’s lost tie in their many bags.
“I put it here with the whole suit,” Leo says with a muffled voice.
“Then it’s supposed to be there,” Ronaldo replies, currently buttoning his white shirt.
Paulo is tapping his right foot in an awkward mannerism while having his hands behind his back and his eyes roams around the room.
“Here it is!” Leo exclaims in victory. “It was hiding at the bottom of your humongous luggage, you drama queen.”
“Well, I don’t remember putting it there. Why was it even separated from the suit at the first place?” Ronaldo defends himself.
They are fighting like an old married couple, Paulo thinks silently.
Leo approaches Ronaldo with the tie in his hands. “Come here,” the Argentine says.
Ronaldo stands in front of Leo, towering him. Leo drapes the tie over the Portuguese’s neck, doing it carefully with a frown on his face, trying to remember correctly how to tie a tie. Ronaldo rests both of his hands on Leo’s waist, groping the smaller man in between.
“Watch your hands, Ronaldo,” Leo warns the taller man when he feels the hands on his waist start roaming towards his lower back direction.
Honestly, all Paulo want right now is to vanish right away. He can feel his face warms up, he’s greatly embarrassed by those two’s ethics. He has seen people doing PDA lots of time before, but this one is not sucking each other’s face out in public or those uncomfortable sight of ass-groping, these are something weirdly amusing and not even in public. But Paulo IS here and despite the amusement, he feels like anintruder.
“Okay, all done,” Leo pats Ronaldo’s wide chest, admiring his work on the tie. He squints his eyes the next second, concentrating on one spot on the other’s face. “Don’t move,” Leo tells Ronaldo as he reaches his hands towards the former Madridista’s cheek to pick up a stray eyelash.
“Now, all done. Go get them, drama queen,” Leo fixes Ronaldo’s collar one last time with the signature dimpled smile. Paulo feels like dying from all the domesticity.
And as if the world wants to see Paulo dying even more, Ronaldo plants a kiss on the small Argentine’s forehead. “Me deseje sorte, meu amor,” the Portuguese says, returning Leo’s smile.
Paulo doesn’t know Portuguese, but Leo nods his head at that and replies, “I will, all the time.”
They part from each other and Ronaldo walks towards the door behind Paulo. But before Ronaldo goes for the door, he stops in front of Paulo.
“Paulo, you free tonight?” Ronaldo asks him.
Paulo nods, too speechless to talk. It seems like his ability to talk vanishes into thin air since the moment he shook hands with Ronaldo.
“Come for dinner at my house, okay? Real’s squad and some of the Juventus will be too, but not everyone. Just a few I’ve met. But you have to be there, yeah?” Ronaldo says, clearly not taking a no as an answer. Then the new Forward pats his head and walks outside the door.
Paulo is taken aback, it’s just an invitation for a dinner party before the actual formal welcome-dinner for new players, but it was Ronaldo.
He can see Leo winks at him.
Well, at least all those awkwardness payed off by a worthy price (dinner at Ronaldo’s, you all!)