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“Guys.” Nunez banged on a stewpot, announcing his entrance into the locker room. “There’s something wrong with Kostas.”
He’d expected surprise, or shock, or even mild concern. Instead, Nunez received a strange look from nearly everybody in the room.
“Took you long enough to find that out,” Milner finally responded, leaning back against the locker. Even though the match had just ended, the Yorkshireman already had out his favorite pair of steel weights, pumping them into the air. “Ever since Thiago got injured, he’s been quieter than usual.”
“Kostas and Thiago are best friends. So I can see why he’s been a bit down lately,” Alisson mused. He scooted closer to Fabinho, hugging him out of instinct. “I just wouldn’t be normal without Fabi and Bobby around.”
Nunez stroked his tiny mustache and thought about this. Alisson wasn’t the best at expressing himself. The keeper generally kept to himself among all their teammates. But he couldn’t deny that Alisson had a point.
“Hear me out, guys.” Nunez banged on the pot again, standing on his bench seat. “What if we went to visit Thiago now? It’ll be a good time, considering our win. And it can be a surprise, and…”
“Say no more!” Klopp, who’d randomly manifested out of nowhere, held up a pair of keys. Upon further inspection, Nunez recognized them as the keys to the team bus. “Hendo, take the wheel. I’ve got to deal with the press, but you boys can hit the road! Hug Thiago for me!”
Before Klopp could even finish, the players were out the door. Tsimikas grabbed the bus keys and high-fived Klopp before shutting the front door.
*
“We don’t talk about Bruno, no no no!” Carvalho sang at the top of his lungs. He’d joined Henderson up front as bus DJ, and immediately started to play his vast repertoire of Disney music. “We don’t talk about Bruno!”
“Lage!” Robertson called out from the back. His reference to the former Wolves boss elicited several laughs around the bus.
Eliott picked up from where Robertson left off with a huge, overexaggerated eye-roll. “They are annoying!”
“They are annoying!” Alexander-Arnold called back, vibing to the music. “Go on, Harvey, show your stuff!”
The rest of the bus joined into the parody, adding in their own frustrations about Wolves. Even Henderson, hyper focused on driving the bus, contributed a rather colorful verse about the West Midlands club. Very soon, they reached the hospital.
“Let’s sing this to Thiago when we get into the room,” Tsimikas suggested, dragging a very unamused Milner out of the bus. “Does everybody have their lines ready?”
“Oh, I am so ready.” Eliott rubbed his hands together in delight, grinning in pure delight at his own anticipated mischief. “I can’t wait to let my swear bomb go!”
*
Thiago was thoroughly bored. He’d scrolled through his phone a dozen times within the past half hour, and he’d tried to fall asleep to no avail. He’d been watching the Liverpool match, but it wasn’t fair that his injury didn’t let him celebrate goals properly.
He gazed up at the bright stars hung in the sky and wished Tsimikas was in the room with him. The loud, boisterous Greek would’ve come up with something for them to do, even if he couldn’t sit still for his own life.
At least Kostas can cook, he thought with a rueful grin. Hospital food had to be the worst invention in history. Even though the NHS budgets were constrained, a decent bowl of pasta with canned tomato sauce couldn’t be that expensive. Could it?
A knock on the door interrupted Thiago’s thoughts. He picked up the pillows he’d thrown to the ground in boredom and fluffed them, rearranging things so they looked somewhat neat. “Who is it?”
“It’s a friend of yours!!!” A familiar singsong voice penetrated the thick door. “Opa, the Greek Scouser is in the house!”
Thiago’s eyes lit up by a million watts. “Come in!” he called, trying not to sound too desperate.
Tsimikas did, followed by quite a few of his teammates. Thiago and Tsimikas met each other’s eyes, and Tsimikas shrieked in delight, leaping onto Thiago’s bed.
“Theé mou, o theé mou!” Tsimikas exclaimed. He gave Thiago a robust, unashamed yet platonic kiss on the forehead. “I missed you too much!”
“Nunca más, ni en mi vida.” Thiago held Tsimikas close to him, sighing in relief. “I am never going this far from you again. If I have to go to the hospital again, I’m taking you with me.”
“Jesucristo you two, get a room!” Nunez groaned. Inwardly though, he was happy to see Tsimikas smiling and laughing again. “Come on guys, let’s sing!”
Thiago glared at Tsimikas, then Adrian. “If you two dare sing my song again, ustedes están muertos!”