Chapter Text
It all started in the middle of December. He woke up the day before the Champions League match against Barcelona not feeling himself. His head felt spacey and he still felt tired. He’d woken up from a 9 hour sleep feeling more exhausted than he felt when he originally went to bed. Eric had felt like this a few times throughout his teenage years but his family always just put it down to his fluctuating hormones. He didn’t have an excuse or a reason now. He hadn’t done any more extensive training than usual that would explain the physical exhaustion he was feeling. He’d just woken up feeling like shit. Realising he had a job to do and places to be, he forced himself into the shower, before making his way to the training ground where everyone was meeting before travelling to the airport. He was dreading the journey to Barcelona because Eric was not in the right mind frame to be stuck on a bus and plane with a bunch of children in their mid-twenties for god knows how many hours.
When he arrived at the training centre, the bus was already parked up, ready for the players to get on. Eric went over to the lady stood to the side of the bus, checking players off on her list once they’d boarded the bus. Eric wanted to get on the bus and go back to sleep as soon as possible, even though it was 11am by the point. He walked straight to the back of the bus and pulled his hood up, resting his head on the window. Eric was just drifting back to sleep when he heard Dele’s loud arrival onto the bus. He groaned, knowing he wasn’t going to get any peace and that Dele was 100% going to come sit down next to him.
Eric, however, was mostly wrong.
Sure, Dele came and sat down next to him, but as soon as he took one look at him and saw how exhausted he looked, he softened his voice and asked “Hey, what’s wrong with you today?”
“Just feeling really tired Del.”
Dele took pity on him and lowered himself down in his seat, low enough for Eric to rest his head comfortably on his shoulder. Eric gave him a weak smile and took the opportunity. He fell asleep to the feeling of Dele gently stroking his beard.
*****
The airport was only an hour drive from the training centre, not giving Eric enough time to have a satisfying nap. At least that’s what he told himself when Dele woke him up because they had just pulled up at the terminal and he was still exhausted. He walked through security in a daze, the process coming to him as unconscious actions. He somehow felt worse now than he did when he first woke up. Must be a bug that’s going aroundhe thinks to himself. He didn’t want to let the medical staff know he wasn’t feeling well as it was such an important game for them and he wanted to be part of it. He didn’t want to travel all the way to Barcelona for no reason, especially when all he wanted to do was be under his duvet away from the world.
He was so zoned out he didn’t realise Dele had come up behind him until he put his hand against his lower back, jolting Eric back into reality.
“Eric. You sure you’re just tired? You might be coming down with something.” Dele then started fussing over him like a mother, causing a bit of a scene checking if he had a temperature.
“Del. Stop I’m fine okay I just didn’t sleep well.” Dele didn’t need to know this was a lie and he’d had over 9 hours of rest. “Once we get to the hotel I’ll have a proper sleep and I’ll be right as rain. Ok?”
“Maybe you should let the medical staff know, just in case. I don’t want you running yourself into the ground.” He’d already started pulling away from where he was stood with Eric to go speak to the medical staff. Eric reached out and grabbed Dele’s arm to stop him walking any further.
“Please, Dele. Don’t tell anyone. I don’t want to be left out the team for no reason.”
Being the eldest of the ‘younger siblings’ (his elder brother and sister had a large age gap between themselves and Eric) he was always the one who took care of people. He never liked to bother people with his problems, used to being the caring big brother. It was times like this he wishes he was able to let someone take care of him and listen to his problems. In his eyes, there was always something more important.
*****
As it turned out, Eric travelled for no reason. When they arrived in Barcelona, they headed straight to the Nou Camp to familiarise themselves with the stadium and pitch and to do a bit of training so Poch could see who was best to play the following day. Eric was so exhausted his head wasn’t fully in training so it came to no surprise when he was told he wouldn’t be starting and would be on the bench instead. It wasn’t the end of the world to Eric as there was still a chance for him to play. But after spending the full 90 minutes sat on the bench, unable to help the team. He was quietly angry at Poch for dragging him all the way to Spain for this game when he was feeling like complete shit (not that Poch even knew he was having any problems) and not even playing him. He didn’t need to shower after the game so he quickly got changed and boarded the bus that was headed straight to the airport. He didn’t understand why he was feeling the way. His team had just made it through to the next stage of the Champions League and all he can do is feel bitter and angry about not having his own involvement and for having to attend the match rather than stay at home. He’d never been a selfish person and his behaviour was confusing him.
When he boarded the plane, he went and sat on his own, putting his belongings on the seat next to him so no one could come sit with him. He kind of wanted to be comforted by Dele but at the same time wanted to pretend everything was ok. He was sat on his own with his earphones in listening to some Portuguese music trying to ground himself – to try and snap himself out of this weird mood and to bring back who he truly was – when he received the notification saying Dele had started a live video. Now he was definitely glad he didn’t have Dele sat next to him knowing that if Dele was here, he would be bombarding Eric with banter and questions which Eric was not in the correct headspace to be responding to, especially not on camera.
He was completely focused on his phone when he felt the presence of someone else. It startled him slightly and he flinched round to see Dele standing there with his standard shithousery grin on and pointing a camera his way. Eric was so startled and exhausted he just looked at the phone camera blank expression before smiling, mostly at Dele’s face.
“You not got anything to say? Not even hello?”
“What?”
“Not got anything to say.”
In all honesty, he didn’t have anything to say. He just waved at the camera instead and Dele turned it away while shaking his head. Eric huffed out a small laugh at his reaction.
It was then he realised he needed Dele around him for him to feel normal.