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Luka does not like conflicts, and even more does not like to participate in them. He does not know how to behave in such situations, immediately gets lost and falls into a stupor. He does not like to quarrel and sort things out, especially when it comes to the team in which you still must play for a whole season and even more, it is unpleasant and uncomfortable for him, especially when you quarrel with your best friend.
He runs ahead of everyone into the locker room and goes into the shower, stands there ad nauseam, waiting for everyone to rinse, change clothes and leave, including Ramos, because he knows that as soon as he goes into the locker room, Sergio will pounce on him with another claim. And for some reason he feels guilty in front of him, really guilty, like as if his parents were scolding him for bringing bad grades from school. But he knows for sure that he did the right thing. Only Sergio doesn't think so. They had misunderstandings and disagreements before, it's normal in friendly relations, there's nothing wrong with that, but today Luka felt especially bad.
He was completely taken aback when he saw an enraged Sergio rushing at him across the field from the penalty area and shouting, "The game continues! Why did you stop? We still playing!" His face was contorted with anger, and there was no benevolence in his brown eyes anymore. He looked at him as one of the players of the opposing team, as if he wanted to hit him and Luka felt uncomfortable. But defender was surrounded on all sides by the players of Deportivo, not allowing him to approach the little Croat standing alone.
Some kind of cacophony began, all the sounds in his head mixed into one, the unbelievable noise of the stands, the hubbub of his team and opponents, Sergio's angry shouts and the referee's whistles – everything turned into mush. Someone fell to the ground, a hustle began, he tried to approach Sergio himself and discuss what had happened, but it didn't work out in such chaos, Ramos was shown a yellow card. Nacho and Cross came up to him to support him, but Modrić hardly understood a word of what they were saying to him. He was in such a state of confusion that he just wanted it to stop as soon as possible.
Luka knew that at times his friend behaved infantile, but he never thought that he would be a victim of his childish antics. Ramos took his decision for betrayal, no matter how ridiculous it may sound.
Despite the absolute win, there was an oppressive atmosphere in the locker room. The captain's bad mood hung like a thundercloud over the heads of his teammates, so no one was glad or having fun, everyone was talking quietly to each other, sitting in the corners. The situation became noticeably tense as soon as Modrić went to the locker room. But he tries not to pay attention to it.
"Luka, what are you doing at all? We agreed that we would take revenge on them for Dani, but you just didn't care about it and did it your own way. In your opinion, is this how a team member behaves?"
Ramos still roughly catches him by the elbow as soon as he passes by, trying not to attract attention. Luka frowns, other fingers dig painfully into his arm, but he does not pull away.
"No, but Sergio, why repeat someone's mistakes if you can do everything right? They showed unsportsmanlike behavior, why should we take their example? I did what would have been more honest."
"More honest? Did they treat us honestly? Tell me."
"I told you I wanted to do everything right!"
"You did. Thank you very much, Saint Luka."
"Stop it. It's just a matter of morality."
"Now I see what you're getting at. We are all bad, dishonest here and Luka Modrić is a highly moral holy lamb!" – the Spaniard raises his voice, so now almost all the intense looks are directed at them.
"These are your words," Modrić spits out.
Ramos fell silent and finally lets him go, angrily tossing the crumpled T-shirt into the far corner of the locker. The midfielder sighs and approaches his seat under the sympathetic glances of his teammates.
Before leaving the locker room, he once again approaches a friend who, like him, is going to be one of the last. Luka hopes that Ramos has stopped being angry.
"Sergio, I'm sorry about what happened."
He's really worried about Sergio's disqualification.
"You felt sorry for Bakkali," Ramos said dryly, without even looking at him.
"I just did what I thought was right," Luka repeated dejectedly.
"Damn, do you even realize that I was disqualified, do you get it? I won't be able to play. And it's fucking because of you!"
Ramos turns abruptly towards him, causing the Croat to stagger to the side.
Dark rage is splashing in brown eyes.
Luka takes his breath away from resentment.
"I... it's not because of me, you know that very well."
"I got the damn cards because you pissed me off, you know?"
Modrić can't believe his ears, is Ramos accusing him because he himself has taken off? He just silently turns around and leaves in upset feelings, not wanting to hear anything more. He feels such injustice towards himself that he feels very bad and disgusting. Even more, not because he is accused of something that he is absolutely not guilty of, but because Sergio tells him so.
×××
"Don't worry. He starts up quickly and quickly calms down, you know," Marcelo encourages, holding the Croat's knees while he shakes his abs, lying on his back. "Besides, we're a team. A whole one. Ramos knows it."
Yes, he knows, and he told Luka that he does not belong to the team because he is a traitor in Sergio’s opinion.
"He hasn't spoken to me for almost a week..." Luka muttered gloomily.
"Have you tried to talk?"
Luka hesitated, leaning back on the grass.
"I see," Marcelo slapped his knees and stood up "If you don't make up by the end of the week, I will tie you to each other by force."
Yes, they needed to talk, and Luka understood that, but why, if he was right, then why should he apologize first? His natural pride simply did not allow him to take and approach Ramos, but Ramos was also damn stubborn and despite Marcelo's words, Sergio could definitely take offense for a very long time. They can't be silent all year, can they? This is so stupid! Can't he just come up and apologize? It's so simple. But at the same time, it is so hard that Modrić does not approach the Spaniard. And next week too.
Everyone sees the disorder between the captain and the midfielder, but no one can influence it in any way. It's a novelty for everyone to see how Ramos takes Marcelo into a pair exercise, and Luka is practised with Isco. Silently. There is no usual chatter of Sese and Lukita during which Ramos himself did not really perform warm-up exercises, so he also distracted Luka. Not heard the typical coaching grumbling of Antonio Pintus in their direction: "Boys enough of this jibber-jabber, we're in training, not on a date!" But even that doesn’t stop them. Especially Ramos, who managed to talk to Modrić, even if the coach paired him with another person. They were just like lovebirds. Marcelo called them that in training.
Now the coaches have another problem. Ramos flipped out on others, often as if deliberately kicking balls in teammates or making real tackles during practice matches. Luka, on the other hand, was somehow sluggish and detached, as if all his energy had abruptly faded away. He seldom smiled and he no longer rejoiced like an enthusiastic child at every goal he scored, as if he had just scored in the World Cup final, not in training.
They're both sad.
One of them, because no one else lifts him off the ground and twists him like a princess, and the second, because he now has no one to grab in his arms and he no longer sees a bright smile that warms no worse than the sun.
×××
"Why are you tormented, just go and talk to him" a mocking voice with an obvious Portuguese accent rang out in the ear. Cristiano flopped down next to him, sipping water from a bottle, and settling himself comfortably on the bench, legs wide apart.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Ramos finally tore his gaze away from the blond crown. More precisely, burned out under the Spanish sun during Modrić's entire stay in Madrid.
"Well, yes. That's why you've been staring at him for 5 minutes, as if you want to burn a hole in him." Ronaldo leaned back, throwing his head back, exposing his already tanned face to the sun's rays.
"It's none of your business at all." Sergio snapped.
"I don't argue," Cris raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture "It's worse for you guys, because you're jerks. Both."
Ramos sighed.
"It's not so simple as you think."
"Oh, yes, it's so hard to just say «sorry» to the person you care about."
And what is he wrong about?
But apologies, especially sincere ones, were never easy for Sergio. Besides, he didn't think he was wrong. But he was lonely and unhappy without Luka. He missed him. And missing someone you see every day was especially hard.
Sergio and Luka have not communicated for the third week, it would seem that what else could go wrong?
At one of the training sessions, Marcelo accidentally breaks Cristiano's nose, unsuccessfully giving an assist. It would seem a typical situation, but Cristiano lashes out at the Brazilian with claims. They shout loudly at each other, one in Brazilian and the other in Portuguese. Word for word and the guys grapple. Ramos and Modrić are the first to take off to end the conflict, seeing that the case smells fried. Others are also rushing to them.
The Croat so worried about it because he can't believe these two got into a fight. They're friends! Besides, this is Marcelo, and this is Cristiano. They have a pretty calm temperament, and they always reduce everything to jokes, but not today.
Ramos gets between two excited guys, trying to push them away from each other.
"What dog bit you?! Chill!" Sergio growls, barely restraining the little Brazilian, who is rushing forward.
"That's enough! You get along great with each other" Luka holds Ronaldo's wrist, preventing him from moving from his place. "Cris, Cris calm down. You're bleeding, let's go to the infirmary." he pulls him towards the dressing rooms, but it's useless to drag Ronaldo, it's like pushing a rock. The Portuguese continues to cover Vieira with all sorts of curses, from which even Ramos' ears wither.
In the end, the brawlers calm down and Ronaldo gets help from the medic on duty, while Marcelo jokes and laughs at the fact that Cristiano will not be invited to any advertising now. Everything is as before.
×××
"What's the matter with them?"
"It's not like them at all. I didn't expect that from Marcelo at all."
"Yeah, me too... " Sergio pauses for a second, before drawing the attention of a short man to himself "Lukita?"
Modrić looked up at him.
The brown eyes looked kind and affectionate again, as always, and a gentle warm smile played on the plump lips. A little hesitant, which looked strange and uncharacteristic for Ramos.
"I'm sorry. I was wrong when I blew up at you. I overreacted, " surprisingly, these words fall from his lips absolutely easily, despite all his inner attitudes.
"No, I'm sorry, I should have talked to you right away, and not to stretch this nonsense for weeks... " Modrić smiles meekly in response, and rays-wrinkles diverge from his eyes, so dear to Ramos.
Luka was so nice again. No, not again. He's always been like that. Ramos even has nose tingled with tenderness. And how could he just pour all that shit on his Lukita? He pulled Modrić to him, wrapped him in a strong bear hug, happily burying his nose in the thick blond hair on top of someone else's head. He missed it so much. With a quiet sigh, Luka pressed himself against the strong torso, feeling the familiar lovely scent of cologne.
It is as if a stone has fallen from heart both of them.
"It worked!" a satisfied Ronaldo, completely forgotten about his damaged nose, clenching his hand into a fist, victoriously threw it up, as if he had won Copa del Rey, and not reconciled more precisely, deceived friends.
He and Marcelo came up with the idea to initiate a fight in training in front of everyone last week. To make it look natural, they decide not to conspire with anyone in advance. Cristiano, of course, has to sacrifice himself, but what you not do for the sake of team cohesion, even if it only applies to two stubborn rams.
"Of course! It was my plan, after all," Marcelo said, not without complacency, looking with a smile at how the Spaniard and the Croat were hugging again, sticking to each other it seems forever.