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it's weird, at first, being with paulo. it makes leo feel warm in a way that he hadn't expected it to, but seeing paulo in his kitchen, sleepy and wearing leo’s clothes, is still… odd. definitely not in a bad way, though, because nothing about being with paulo is bad.
he takes ages to wake up in the morning, which is something leo learns very early on. he protests every attempt to get him to rise, even leo taking the duvet away and turning all the lights on achieves nothing. the only thing that can rouse him is the smell of freshly made coffee. so that becomes part of his routine (of their routine) when they're together - leo always gets up first and makes both of them coffee.
he loves watching paulo wake up, seeing him slowly come to grips with the world around him. he looks so soft first thing in the morning. his hair is all messy and his eyelids are droopy and when he yawns leo wants to hug him and never let go.
“hey, what are you doing?” paulo asks one morning when leo pulls him onto his chest as they lie in bed.
“i'm cuddling you paulo, calm down.”
he laughs slightly, but paulo just sighs contentedly and kisses leo lightly on the chest and his heart flutters beneath his lips.
he's a massive fan of rom-coms, which doesn't come as total surprise, but it still makes leo smile. he becomes so invested in every couple, so concerned that they should be happy and leo finds it almost annoyingly adorable. he looks over at him, eyes soft and locked intensely on the screen as he hugs a pillow to his chest. he wishes then that he could transport paulo into one of those worlds, give him the meet cute and the fairytale ending and the dramatic kiss in the rain.
sometimes he yells at the screen if the girl ends up with the wrong guy, and he often laments about the lack of gay rom-coms out there (something leo empathises with). he cries at almost every single one they watch together and leo wraps an arm around him and pulls him close, smiling to himself at how easily affected paulo is.
“they really do belong together, don't they?” he mutters as they watch the notebook together for the upteenth time.
leo laughs.
“yeah, pau, they really do.”
the first time paulo flies to barcelona from turin to see him just because he has two days off, leo thinks he's insane. when he opens the door, paulo is stood there smiling at him, his eyes glistening and his entire being radiating warmth.
“what are you doing here?”
“i had a couple days off, thought i'd come and see you. i missed you.”
paulo shrugs as he talks, like it's nothing that he flew over five hundred miles to see him, and leo is slightly in awe.
“i… won't you be tired? when you get back?”
“i mean, maybe a little, but there's no jet lag and it's worth it to see you.”
leo wishes he could do that, just get on a plane and travel so see him, but he would never even think of doing it with such a short amount of time off. he feels guilty, not just because paulo is definitely going to be tired when he gets back to turin, but because he had three days off the other week and didn’t even think about going to see him.
he wonders if it actually is worth it, but by the time leo is laid out on the bed with paulo's head bobbing between his legs, he decides that yeah, it definitely is.
he comes to see him fairly regularly after that. it becomes so normal to see him in his kitchen or his bedroom, and it makes leo's chest feel tight in a way he can’t explain. leo always asks paulo if he would rather that he travelled to turin, but paulo says no, says he likes to come to barcelona, and leo doesn’t ask why.
eventually, he gives paulo a key. he’ll come home to see him sat in the living room watching some lame film on the tv, and paulo will look over at him as he walks in and smile. leo wishes that paulo could be there every time he comes home, that he could make him coffee every morning for the rest of his life.
he knows that he can’t really have that, though, at least not now.
when they’re not together, they talk on the phone every night. leo finds himself needing to hear the sound of paulo’s voice for him to be able to sleep, and he doesn’t know how much he likes it but it’s definitely more than he should. it comforts him, calms him down, and he just likes to speak to him and to hear him speak. he likes to know how his day went and what he ate for dinner and the stupid jokes his teammates made in training, and paulo tells him. for a while it’s almost like he can reach out and touch him.
leo has never been a big texter, but paulo is. he slowly gets used to the near constant stream of updates blowing up his phone, and he starts to look forward to paulo’s messages and the emojis that come along with them.
some of his teammates start to question why he’s suddenly spending so much time on his phone and who it is that’s putting that smile on his face. leo just waves them off and they move on, deciding his personal life is not worth that much of their time.
he still never manages to stop smiling, though.
he likes the contact with paulo, it makes him feel closer to him, almost like paulo is right there with him. despite the feeling, leo knows that he isn’t, and remembering that makes him miss paulo even more.
“i wish i could see you right now. you say so much more with your eyes than you do with your words,” paulo says once over the phone, and leo laughs.
“i have no idea what you mean by that, but i wish i could see you right now too.”
after months of talking to him constantly, he can feel them growing closer. he finds himself craving paulo’s presence - his voice, his words his smile, everything. he brings him comfort and joy, just being with paulo makes him happy. leo starts to realise that he really is falling for paulo dybala. he also realises that he can’t do anything to stop it, and if he’s being honest, he doesn’t really want to.