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A knock on the door.
Another knock.
Carlos turned around, white sheets clinging to his too warm skin. He was way too tired for this. He wanted to sleep in for once. Was once too much to ask? He turned around again and decided to just ignore the knocks.
Another knock.
This one was even longer and louder.
Ugh, this sucked. He hated his life right now. He dragged himself out of bed, barely awake and walked to the door.
Another knock.
Wow, he was almost there, what the hell? Impatient much? He practically threw the door open and blurted out a "What?", expecting to see one of his team members on the other side.
What he did not account for was for Simone Vagnozzi to be standing right in front of him.
__________
Simone had enough of this. Jannik was sleeping in again. This was getting ridiculous. Was he his personal alarm or why did he always end up having to wake him up? Granted, Jannik has gotten really good at waking up on time in the last few months, but alas, there always were some setbacks.
He got to Jannik's hotel room, which was pretty close to his, and knocked. He knew Jannik would need some time to wake up, so after a few seconds he knocked again and gave him the time to stand up and come to the door. When he didn't open the door, he knocked again. And one more time for good measure. How deep was he in dreamland? They needed to leave soon, Simone hated coming to the airport too–
Before he could finish that thought, the door opened and a sleep-riddled Carlos Alcaraz stood before him.
Maybe he was the one still sleeping.
__________
...What? What did Simone want from him? Was he Jannik's boyfriend? Yes. But did Simone know that? Definitely not.
"...room?" was all Carlos heard from Simone's sentence.
It was too early for this. He could barely keep his eyes open, how was he supposed to listen and think at the same time.
"What?" was all Carlos could say back.
"This is Jannik's room? Or is it not? 473? I was here yesterday. It was 473? Or was it 474? Am I in the wrong room? No, I'm– it's 473. 4 plus 3 is 7, that's how I remembered it..." He looked past Carlos and into the room, then back at Carlos again. "... Carlos? This is Jannik's room, right?" He sounded confused and almost desperate.
He looked Carlos up and down and his eyes widened. Carlos looked down at himself and noticed he only got his boxers on, which he definitely would not be wearing now, if Jannik hadn't thrown them at him the night before, after they had… oh. Oh NO! Now Carlos' eyes widened and he remembered. Jannik was in this room. Jannik was in Jannik's room. This was Jannik's room and he opened the door, because he thought this was his own room. Oh shit. Oh SHIT!
"...Is Jannik in this room, Carlos?"
The answer was 'yes', but what should he answer Simone?
"Uhmmmmmm… maybe?"
Simone kept staring at him.
"Maybe?"
"...yeah."
Simone was standing there in a state of shock, barely moving a muscle, as if he was incapable of doing so.
"He said 'maybe'. What is going on?" Simone mumbled to himself. He got louder when saying "Jannik?" while trying to take a peak into the room.
Carlos panicked and closed the door a bit more.
"I'll be right back," Carlos said, his voice higher pitched than normal. And just like that he closed the door before Simone could say anything else, or worse, come in.
__________
Simone kept staring at the door that Carlos Alcaraz just closed in front of his face.
Carlos? What is this? Was Jannik in there? He had to be. But what on god's earth was Carlos doing in there? With just his underwear?! There had to be a logical explanation for this. Had to be. He begged whoever listened there to be one. Because the only thing popping in his head was that Carlos slept in there. With Jannik. Together. Those two together. In bed. At night.
Maybe Carlos had slept on the couch? Maybe the AC in his room was broken or something. It was pretty hot here. He himself had the AC on all night. This had to be it, or some version of that. But why was Carlos in Jannik's room then? They weren't that good of friends. Acquaintances at most. Although the last few months he did see them talking a bit more than usual. Maybe they have become good friends without Simone knowing. But why didn't he know? And why was Carlos not with one of his team members?
Simone finally moved, rubbing his face with his hands to try and clear his head.
"Simone, are you alright?"
Simone did not expect to be spoken to right now, so he all but screamed when he turned to the side and saw Juan Carlos walking towards him.
__________
Carlos turned around and put his hands into his hair. Oh god, this was bad. If Simone walked in here he would definitely know they had sex. Carlos didn't even look at Jannik, because he knew the guy was one hundred percent still asleep, and began to quickly throw the clothes they threw off each other last night into a heap and onto the clothes in Jannik's suitcase, which he then closed haphazardly.
While going to the window and balcony doors to open them as far as he could, he started quietly shouting Jannik's name, in the hopes that he would wake up in the next few seconds it took to get this room somewhat cleaned up.
Next were the lube and the condoms that they hadn't packed away, which he just hid under the blanket on his side of the bed. He wouldn't be using the bed right now anyway.
Carlos suddenly remembered that he was still almost naked and started to open Jannik's suitcase again, cursing the whole time as he put on the first clothes he got his hands on.
This already took too long. Shit, was Jannik even awake already? He kept calling Jannik, and, while hiding the stuff under the blanket, even shook him for good measure. Now that he was decent, Jannik was next.
He practically ran to him, tripping over the damned suitcase, almost breaking his precious ankle, but making it safely to the bed. He sat down, shaking Jannik and calling him again and again while throwing in few "sorry, I fucked up" and "come on, please, wake up" into the mix.
Jannik finally stirred. He turned from his side to his back, stretching his arms, all calm as if Simone wasn't waiting outside the door for what felt like half an hour.
"What is going on Carlos? Everything okay?"
__________
Juanki was currently looking for Carlos, who wasn't in his room. He walked toward Alvaro's room to see if he was there, when he turned a corner and saw Simone Vagnozzi standing in front of a hotel room door, but not going in. Something seemed off, so Juanki decided to make sure everything was okay instead of just greeting him quickly and walking on.
"Simone, are you alright?" Juanki asked.
Simone flinched and turned to Juanki before answering: "No! I mean yeah, not no, but yeah! I think? No, I mean, yes, it's all good, yeah, yeah, it's all good..." He got quieter the longer his answer went.
So, everything was definitely not good, but Simone did not seem to want to share what was bothering him. "Okay...I'll leave you alone then." He already took a step in the opposite direction when he remembered he could ask Simone about Carlos' whereabouts: "Hey, sorry, quick question then I'll leave. Have you seen Carlos by any chance?"
If Simone looked distraught before, it somehow got worse after his question. Simone pointed at the door and said with a broken voice: "Yeah."
Why was he pointing at that door? Room 473. He didn't know who's room that was. Did he mean that Carlos was behind that door? If that was true, then why was he there? Who was he with? And most importantly: Why was Simone so upset by whatever was behind that door?
"Carlos is in there?" Juanki wanted to make sure he got that right.
Simone still kept pointing. "Yeah."
"...Who's room is that?" He had an idea who's room it might be, but still, he wanted to make sure his guess was right.
Simone finally dropped his hand and sighed deeply. "Jannik's room."
He was right. He got closer to Simone and asked: "Okay. Why are you standing here, if I may ask? Are you waiting for Jannik?"
Simone just stood there and kept sighing. Something was up, but he had no idea what exactly it could be that was unsettling Simone like that.
"Yes. I think. And for Carlos. Maybe. Who knows."
Juanki was so lost, but before he could ask Simone further questions to clarify everything, the door was opened.
__________
Carlos opened his mouth and out came a flood of words, half whispered, half screamed, without any breath in between.
"Jannik! Nothing is okay! Simone is outside, I opened the door, but this is your room, so what was I supposed to do, he wanted to know if you were here, I told him 'maybe', he wanted to go in, I think, then I told him to wait a moment and just closed the door, oh my god, and I only had my underwear on, then I had to clean the room, and –"
Jannik sat up and put his hands on Carlos' arms. "Carlos, Carlos, stop. Okay, take a deep breath."
Carlos was surprisingly winded from his panicked rambling. He followed Jannik's instructions.
"So, you said Simone was outside? He wanted to see me and you opened the door?" Jannik asked.
Carlos only nodded while trying to calm his breathing.
"Okay, I'll go and just tell him you were here because..."
Jannik said this while getting up, but stopped halfway through the motion, when he couldn't think of a good reason why Carlos would be in his room practically naked.
Carlos got up as well and started to share an idea with Jannik, who went to his suitcase to quickly put on some clothes.
"Maybe we’ll just tell him I needed to borrow some of your clothes, because I didn't have the ones I wanted to wear? We'll say I wanted to wear my sponsor to the airport and you have the same sponsor, sooo… that works, right? I was in the middle of putting something on, when someone knocked and I forgot that this wasn't my room. That's good, right?"
Jannik put his hands on his hips and nodded. "Yeah, let's go with that. Come on, this already took way too long."
Carlos checked if the clothes he grabbed earlier were the sponsored ones, which they were, thank god, and they quickly went to the door, which Jannik opened. What they saw made both of them do a double take.
All Carlos could say, or rather scream, was a shocked "What?!".
What was Juanki doing here?!
__________
Simone was surprised that the door was opened, but glad that Jannik was there and that Carlos had some clothes on.
Carlos was the first to talk after his initial reaction. "What are you doing here, Juanki?!"
Juanki folded his arms and said: "I'm looking for you, what else? We are leaving soon and you weren't in your room. So, what are you doing in Jannik's room?"
Carlos laughed. I didn't seem very genuine. "Oh, you know, I just wanted to borrow some clothes from Jannik! And, you know, I don't have this outfit that I wanted to wear to the airport, so I wanted to ask him if I could borrow his... you know?" He ended with another uncomfortable laugh.
Juanki looked Carlos up and down, arms still folded. "Carlos, I know for a fact that you also have these exact clothes with you, so why the need to borrow them?"
Simone also looked at Carlos' clothes and noticed something. "Jannik, isn't that the outfit you wore yesterday?"
Jannik's eyes widened and his cheeks turned red. "Um… is it? I haven't noticed. I'm sorry that I gave you something that I already wore, Carlos."
Carlos looked at Jannik. "Oh, no problem, that's ok."
Their conversation was very stilted. They were definitely lying. What about, he didn't know.
It seemed that Juan Carlos noticed it as well. "Jannik, me and Simone are coming in, okay?"
Before getting an answer he just opened the door wider and went in, Jannik and Carlos pressing themselves against the wall to let him in. Simone shrugged his shoulders apologetically and also went in. He looked around the room. He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. After Jannik closed the door both him and Carlos slowly came further into the room.
Juan Carlos stood between the couch and Jannik's suitcase, arms still crossed. "Can one of you now tell us what is going on?"
Jannik and Carlos looked at each other, probably trying to communicate non-verbally. Jannik's jaw was clenched, which to Simone meant that he was definitely uncomfortable and definitely hiding something.
Carlos tried to be casual, putting his hands into the pockets of his joggers. "Nothing, I don't know what you mean. I told you why I was here." He shrugged his shoulders for good measure.
Simone exchanged a look with Juan Carlos. They both knew they wouldn't budge. Simone thought this would be the end of it, but Juan Carlos pointed at the suitcase. "Carlos, if what you're saying is true, then what is your favourite shirt doing in Jannik's suitcase?"
Carlos opened his mouth ready to answer, but Juan Carlos continued. "Don't tell me that you changed clothes and wanted to leave them with Jannik." He additionally pointed with his chin at the bed. "And what is your phone doing on the nightstand? Plugged in? Seems to me that you were here a bit longer than to 'just change clothes for the airport'."
Oh, Simone didn't even notice the two phones on the nightstands. This was not good. God, he hoped there was a good explanation for all this. He really liked his broken AC-theory.
__________
Jannik was panicking. This was not how this morning was supposed to go. Carlos was supposed to wake up, then wake him up, then they would say their goodbyes, share a kiss and then he would fall asleep right after until his alarm woke him up again.
What was happening right now should not be happening! They were so good at hiding their now eight month long relationship. Now one dumb mistake, which he didn't blame Carlos for, it could have happened to him too, could ruin it all. Their teams will definitely not approve of their relationship, hence why they didn't tell them, and no one else either for that matter, because they would all think this was crazy.
"And what is your phone doing on the nightstand? Plugged in? Seems to me that you were here a bit longer than to 'just change clothes for the airport'," Juan Carlos asked.
The only thing Jannik could do when Juan Carlos questioned Carlos was to stand there, shocked to the core, and pray that Carlos had a good explanation for everything. Carlos looked at him again, probably hoping the same thing from Jannik. He could only stare back helplessly.
"I got nothing," Carlos whispered to Jannik. He then turned fully to him, held him by the elbow and added: "Jan, I think we have to tell them."
Cazzo. Shit. Cazzo.
"Um... so...," Jannik said out loud, still trying to find a way out of this. He looked around the room for any kind of inspiration, but, unfortunately, wasn't the creative type and also wasn't good at lying, which made it impossible for him to come up with something.
They were done for.
__________
Carlos saw Jannik struggle to come up with an answer. It was obvious that he tried to lie. Before he could say anything, Simone started talking:
"Jannik." Simone waited until Jannik's eyes met his. "Please. Tell us what is going on. You can trust me. I hope you know that."
Jannik looked at him with a mix of hopelessness and desperation. He didn't want to tell them anything. Carlos knew exactly how he felt, but surprisingly, Carlos wasn't the one whose face conveyed all his emotions, it was Jannik's. Carlos' heart hurt for the both of them. They didn't want to tell anyone. They were too afraid of the backlash they would receive, even from the people they loved. But he also knew that they had to do this now.
It was obvious that Juanki and Simone were suspicious. Jannik and he himself couldn't afford this to be the reason for a chasm to form in both their teams. They would find out either way, or at least suspect something from now on, because if they focused just a bit more on his and Jannik's relationship, it was obvious what Carlos felt for him. The love he had for Jannik was something he could never hide completely.
So he braced himself for what was about to come. "Okay, let's do this. Please, sit down. Come on, Janni."
Simone exchanged a look with Juan Carlos and they both sat down on the only couch in the room. Carlos practically had to drag Jannik to sit down on a footstool opposite of their coaches. He wished he could talk to Jannik before they told them. He seemed so out of it, so unwilling to share this, but time was a cruel thing; it didn't let you have it when you needed it most.
Carlos wanted to look at Jannik so they could agree on who would speak, but Jannik only looked at his feet, so Carlos decided for them.
"So," he let out an empty laugh. "This is not how we wanted to do this, to be honest," he looked at Jannik again, until he finally looked back. He was glad to have Jannik's gaze on him. He needed it to have the courage to continue. "We are… so, Jannik and I are..." He couldn't get it out. Now he was the one unwilling to share. "God, this is so hard to do."
Juan Carlos and Simone seemed to be on the edge of their seats. They both unconsciously leaned forward to better hear what Carlos had to say, and probably, to get him to spit it out.
"Carlos and I are in a relationship," Jannik said while locking eyes with Simone. Carlos sharply turned to Jannik. He did not expect him to say anything. To have him say this was a burden lifted off Carlos' shoulders. Jannik has always been the one with more confidence and courage when he, in this case they, needed it the most.
Carlos looked at Jannik and Simone, who kept staring at each other.
"What? You... what? Like a… type of friendship? We already know that. Everyone knows that you sometimes talk off court, but what does this have to do with what you're not telling us?" Simone asked.
"Not a friendship, Simone. A 'I'm in love with Carlos and Carlos is in love with me'-relationship," Jannik immediately shot back.
Carlos saw Juanki put his head in his hands and heard a "Oh, no" slip out of Simone's mouth.
This was bad. And exactly the reaction they expected. Joder.
__________
Simone could not believe what he just heard. This was actually illogical. This had to be a joke.
"You are joking, right?" He glanced at Juan Carlos, who hasn't moved since putting his head in his hands. Simone chuckled lightly, maybe a bit desperately. "Right?"
Jannik and Carlos looked at each other and Carlos' hand moved to take Jannik's hand into his. They kept looking at each other when Carlos answered softly:
"No, I love your Jannik. He is the love of my life. My sunshine."
Jannik looked down and blushed, a bashful smile on his face. Oh no, they were serious. You couldn't fake this. And honestly, why would they? What he saw on their faces was genuine love. How did this even happen? How has he never noticed this?
He actually could answer the second question himself: Because they didn't want him to know; didn't want anyone to know. He also knew why.
Before he could form any kind of coherent response, Juan Carlos had awoken from his stasis. He looked at their two tennis players, elbows leaning on his knees. His face had stress written all over it.
Juan Carlos sighed and said with a defeated smile: "You couldn't let me live in peace, could you, Carlos?" He leaned back on the couch and took a deep breath. "This is not what I expected to hear today. Or at all. Honestly, I'm kind of shocked."
He was silent, then continued after another deep breath. "But, if this makes you two happy, then I'm happy for you, of course I am. Who are we to tell you what you can and can't do? This is just… not something I," he looked at Simone and continued "we would ever have guessed could happen. Let us process this, please. It's not every day you hear that your player is in a relationship with his rival. Wow."
Truther words have never been spoken. "Yes, I agree. I... never would have thought that you two would… want that with each other. It seems to be a very serious relationship, am I right to assume that?" Simone said.
Both Jannik and Carlos nodded. Of course they did. God, this wouldn't be easy moving forward. Why did they let them find out? He would like nothing more than this knowledge to be erased from his memory. Ignorance is bliss and all that. He thinks Juan Carlos would agree with him. He looks to have aged about 10 years in the last few minutes. As did he, probably.
"So, how… how did this happen, if I may ask?" Simone asked, pointing a finger between the two. If he couldn't erase his memory, he could at least try to understand their connection.
They looked at each other and Carlos started to speak: "Well, I guess we kind of got to know each other, because we played against each other so often. Then we met outside of the court, like in our hotel rooms, to watch movies or to just talk. And after I realized that I had feelings for him, I kind of..." They looked at each other and started laughing. "Well, let's just say I got Jannik to kiss me."
They continued to giggle, when Jannik said: "You were very clever, I have to admit. I would have never dared to do anything about our feelings otherwise. I'm really happy you got us together."
They looked like they were about to kiss, but held back as to not kiss in front of them. They looked really happy together.
"Of course it was you who started this," Juan Carlos said with a smile, definitely directed at Carlos.
Carlos pretended to be offended. "Juanki!"
Juanki started to laugh and everyone immediately joined in.
After the laughter died down, Juanki got up. "Okay, we’ll leave you two alone now. Simone and I need to digest this properly."
Simone agreed and also got up. He went to Jannik, just like Juan Carlos went to Carlos, both hugging their respective players. "Jannik, I'm proud of you. Always. You know that, right?" They parted and Jannik looked down, but not before Simone saw that he was misty-eyed.
"Yeah I– thank you, Simone."
He patted his arm. "No worries, kid."
Juan Carlos and him said their goodbyes and left the room.
They looked at each other after the door closed, both shaking their heads as they began to walk towards their rooms.
"This was… I don't even know what to say," Juan Carlos said.
"Yeah, I know how you feel." They were silent, before Simone continued. "Did you have any idea this was happening?"
Juan Carlos tilted his head. "I mean… no. No, I didn't. It's just that Carlos was sometimes so happy to see Jannik and he talked about him a lot, but I just assumed he was admiring him as a player, you know."
Simone hummed. "I didn't hear anything from Jannik, but you know how he is. He keeps things close to himself, even if he is much more open with the people he is close with, we are still not privy to everything."
"Yeah, that's how he seems to be. I'm just surprised that Carlos managed to not tell anyone. Or maybe… maybe he told Alvaro. I'll have to ask him."
They kept walking on when Simone suddenly remembered why he had been to Jannik's room in the first place.
He stopped abruptly and exclaimed: "Oh my god! Our flight! We will miss our flight!"
He left Juan Carlos standing where he stopped, but not soon after heard that he followed him. He and Carlos probably also had a flight to catch.
__________
Jannik closed the door behind their coaches and leaned against it.
He exhaled loudly. "This was exhausting."
"Yeah," Carlos said with a big smile. "But it was worth it. It went so much better than we always imagined."
Carlos was right. Jannik didn't want to think that they were wrong for keeping their relationship a secret, but maybe they shouldn't have immediately thought of the worst possible outcome in case they told someone. He was so glad that Simone and Juan Carlos accepted their relationship, even if they had to find out in a rather unconventional way.
Carlos came closer to Jannik and hugged him, his head tucked under Jannik's.
Jannik put his arms around him. "Yeah, I'm not happy about how they found out, but I hope this gives us the courage to tell more people."
Carlos looked up and gave Jannik a peck on the lips. "I agree. I do not want to feel this kind of panic ever again."
"Yeah, me neither. Let's just lay down and sleep for a week. This was way too much for my brain."
Carlos smiled. "I like the way you think, Mr. Sinner."
They both leaned into each other, ready to kiss and go to bed, when they were both interrupted by someone shouting in the hallway. They looked at each other, but just smiled and shrugged, because whatever this was, it was none of their business. They have worried enough for one day.
They leaned into each other again, but were disturbed once more, now by frantic knocks on their door. "Jannik! Jannik, open up you two! Jannik, our flight!"
Their eyes locked, panic written all over their faces. "Shit!"