Chapter Text
If you asked anyone to describe Lamine Yamal, they would probably say something along of the lines of how he was one of the best football players in the world or that he was the new generation's next Lionel Messi.
But, if you asked Pau Cubarsí that question, he wouldn't say either of those things or even mention football to begin with. No, he would probably say that Lamine Yamal was one of the most determined and hardworking people he had ever met. Or that despite his more laid back public persona, Lamine was a lot more playful than people who didn't even know him often took him for.
What Pau would never say out loud to any other living human being though was that while to everyone else, Lamine Yamal was what many would equate to a football prodigy and overall genius on the pitch. To Pau Cubarsí, he was also the sweetest, most loving, and probably (definitely) the most beautiful person Pau had ever laid his eyes on.
But, again, he would never admit that to anyone for as long as he lived and planned to take all of that with him to the grave.
Pau had swore to himself from the very moment when he realized that maybe his feelings for Lamine weren't entirely platonic and best friend-like, that he would never let anyone else find out or even know about his stupid crush on his stupidly pretty best friend.
However, clearly he needed to try way harder to hide it or maybe Ferran "Shark" Torres was just a weird guy who spent way too much time observing him and all of their other teammates. Because the man had cornered him with a slightly unsettling grin that spelled nothing but trouble for Pau right before the Spanish national team headed to the airport for the World Cup, which led to one of the most mortifying moments in his entire nineteen years of life.
"Cuba, hold on!" Pau looked up from his phone to see Ferran jogging towards him with his signature grin.
"What's up, Ferran?"
"Do you want to switch seats with me on the plane?"
"Huh? Why?" Pau furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Was this about Ferran wanting to sit next to Pedri on the plane again or something? "If you want to sit next to Pedri, sorry, but I don't think he's sitting next to me this time."
"What? No, that's not what it is. Though, do you have any idea where he might be sitting then? I haven't gotten the chance to ask him yet-" Ferran stopped midway through his rambling and shook his head. "Y'know what, nevermind. But, no, that's not why. I'm just pretty sure Lamine's sitting by me, so I just figured I'd ask if you wanted to swap."
Okay, now Pau was even more confused. Did Ferran and Lamine get into some sort of argument and that's why Ferran seemed like he didn't want to sit near him during their flight to America? "I mean, I wouldn't mind if that's what you want. But, I'm just confused why you're asking me, did you two fight or something?"
"Cuba, why do you always assume people fight when they ask you stuff like this?" Ferran sighed. "We didn't fight, I'm just trying to do you a favor, dude!"
"What's the favor exactly?" He was beginning to think that Ferran had finally sustained some form of a concussion and that he was currently losing his mind because the man wasn't making any sense to Pau.
Ferran groaned, running a hand through his hair like Pau was actively shortening his lifespan. "Letting you sit next to your boyfriend obviously!" He said (way too loudly for Pau's comfort).
Pau's green eyes widened, almost comically, the second that the word "boyfriend" flew out of Ferran's stupid mouth and he immediately slapped his hand over the lower half of the brunette's face.
"What? What are you talking about?" He hissed before looking around to see if anyone else was near them. By some miracle, the lobby was basically empty, aside from a couple of older staff members who probably couldn't have cared any less about whatever was going on between the two of them. "Lamine isn't my boyfriend." He muttered defensively.
Ferran shoved Pau's hand off of his face with an over-exaggerated look of disgust on his face. "Dude, don't do that, that's disgusting." Pau just rolled his eyes at that. "And what are you talking about? I thought you guys were dating! Or do you guys just not like the term 'boyfriends' or something? I mean it's the 21st century, I guess you guys can call each other whatever you want-"
"Ferran, we aren't dating."
"What?" Ferran blinked. "Do you guys have a weird like situatiship thing going on or whatever you teenagers call it?"
"Oh my God." Pau buried his head in his hands. Could this conversation get any more embarrassing? "No, we aren't in a situationship. We're just best friends."
If Ferran didn't look confused before, he definitely did now. His eyebrows were furrowed and his lips pursed as he just stared blankly at his teammate. "Okay wait, so let me get this straight. You and Lamine aren't dating-"
"Yes."
"-You two are just 'best friends'." Ferran said, emphasizing 'best friends' with air quotes.
"Yeah-"
"Best friends that have basically every meal possible together when we're training or traveling-"
"That's not even that weird."
"-and stare at each other lovingly when you both think no one's looking, but everyone is, in fact, looking-"
"We don't do that."
Ferran glared at Pau. "Stop interrupting me."
"I'm just correcting you."
"You kids here days really don't know how to respect your elders." The brunette shook his head disapprovingly at Pau. "Anyways, so you're being completely serious when you say that you and Lamine allegedly aren't dating?"
"There's no 'allegedly', we just aren't dating, Ferran."
Ferran hummed loudly. "Right, so you just like him."
"Yeah-" Pau quickly realized that Ferran had just trapped him and immediately tried to backtrack. "Wait, no! I don't like him like that! You made me slip up, Ferran, that's not fair at all!"
"Haha, you just admitted it! I knew you liked him!" Ferran laughed, practically doubling over with the force of how hard he was laughing (at Pau's misery). Once he finally managed to stop laughing and dramatically wiped a few tears from his eyes, he looked back at Pau and asked. "How long?"
"What?"
"How long have you liked him?"
Pau sighed in defeat, not even bothering to continue his lie. "Not that long," He avoided Ferran's curious gaze. "Just since one of the Clásicos in 2024." He mumbled under his breath, hoping that Ferran wouldn't be able to make out what he said and just leave it at that.
But, the universe clearly had other plans for poor Pau Cubarsí that day. "Holy shit, since 2024?" God damn you, Ferran Torres. "That's way longer than I thought. You really have it down bad for him, don't you lover boy?"
"Ugh, don't call me that." Pau cringed. Out of all people to find out about his embarrassing secret, why did it have to be Ferran?
"So," Ferran swung an arm around Pau's shoulders. "What was it? The muscles? The cute braces? How amazing he was during that one specific Clásico where you fell in love? Or his pretty curls?"
"Ferran, shut up-"
"Whose pretty curls?"
Oh fuck me. Pau thought to himself.
Because standing right in front of the two was none other than the very cause of this horrid conversation in the first place, Lamine Yamal.
Normally, Pau would be over the moon seeing Lamine. But during this specific moment, Pau was pretty sure he'd rather see literally anyone else.
"Uh, we were just talking about-"
"You!" Ferran flashed Lamine a smile, tightening his hold on Pau's shoulders. Pau shot him a glare that screamed "What the hell are you doing right now?", but in true Ferran fashion, he just smirked at Pau and continued talking, much to Pau's rapidly growing dismay. "Cuba here was just saying how pretty your curls have been getting since you started styling them again!"
Pau didn't think that he ever wanted to die more than at that very moment.
"Oh," Pau tried not to look at Lamine when he heard his best friend's surprised reply purely out of fear of what he would see. But, he was nothing but a weak man whenever it came to Lamine Yamal, so he found himself glancing over at him after a solid five seconds.
Pau braced himself to see an awkward or maybe even disgusted look on Lamine's face, but to his utter surprise, he didn't see either. Instead, Lamine's cheeks were slightly flushed and he looked uncharacteristically flustered. He was also subconsciously playing with his curls, which was anything but good for Pau's weak heart.
Holy shit, I think he's actually the cutest person I've ever seen.
Just when Pau thought that this entire situation was already too much for his heart to handle, Lamine looked directly at him and asked, "You really think so?"
To anyone else, they probably wouldn't have thought twice about the way Lamine had asked that. But to Pau, he immediately noticed the shy tone that Lamine's voice had taken. Though, Pau decided to just blame it on Lamine just being surprised and embarrassed by Pau's sudden compliment. He didn't want to dwell on anything that wasn't necessarily there after all.
"Yeah, they look really nice." Pau finally replied, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Lamine softly smiled, the smile that Pau had more or less grown extremely fond of over the years. "Thanks, Cuba."
Pau felt the back of his neck burn as he choked out, "No problem, uh, bro." He heard Ferran snort next to him and finally moved to shove him off. Served him right for being the reason Pau was even in this position to begin with.
"Woah, what did I do?" Ferran raised his hands up in mock surrender before turning towards Lamine, his eyes practically lighting up with what Pau immediately recognized as mischief. "Oh, before I forget Lamine! Pau said he wanted to switch seats with me to sit by you, so don't miss me too much on the flight!" He exclaimed, bolting off towards a group of their teammates who had finally made their way into the lobby.
Pau was about to run after and probably strangle Ferran when Lamine took a few steps closer to him. "You really switched seats with Ferran to sit by me?" He suddenly grinned, like a switch inside him had been flipped from embarrassed and shy to confident. "I didn't realize you liked being by me so much, Cuba." Lamine said, clearly enjoying this all.
"Don't flatter yourself too much, I just didn't want to get caught in one of Gavi's TikToks again," Pau tried deflecting.
Lamine just laughed at that and let Pau's extremely obvious lie slide for the moment being.
"Come on, we don't want to miss the bus to the airport." Pau simply hummed at that and grabbed his and Lamine's suitcases, not even thinking twice about the gesture.
He wasn't sure when he had started doing things like that, carrying Lamine's luggage along with his own, taking his empty plates to the kitchen after team meals, listening for the way Lamine would always tap the side of his cleat whenever he wanted Pau to pass the ball to him during training, the list went on and on.
Lamine never even asked him to do any of those things either, Pau had just begun to do them subconsciously and Lamine never commented on it at all, so he never stopped.
Things like that had simply become routine for the pair, something unspoken between them, not because neither wanted to acknowledge it, but because they didn't feel like they had to speak to understand each other. That was how Pau and Lamine had been since their days in La Masia and that's how things only continued to be as they grew older.
It was something that even their teammates had just accepted as normal behavior from the two. Well, up until now apparently.
"Aw, how nice of you, Cuba! Carrying Lamine's luggage for him like the knight in shining armor you are." Ferran practically cooed as the pair made their way over to the growing crowd of their teammates. Pau could feel their teammates all turning to look at him and Lamine and he just wished that he would catch on fire right then and there.
That was a thing, right? He remembered Dani telling him about some video he had watched about spontaneous human combustion a few months ago. At the time, Pau thought it was kind of grim to think about. But at that very moment, he wished that it would happen to him.
"Awwwww!" Of course, Gavi of all people just had to say something too. "Protecting our little prince, aren't you, Cuba?"
"More like his little prince. You don't see anyone treating Lamine the way Pau does." Pau heard Pedri chuckle.
Pau's face was probably as red as their home jerseys by now. He tightened his grip on the handle of Lamine's suitcase. Not trusting himself to say anything in fear of immediately embarrassing himself.
He noticed Lamine glance at him in the corner of his eye before he basically giggled.
Yeah, Pau could probably die now since he had already been embarrassed into an oblivion by his so called teammates, but also because Lamine had just giggled at him and he didn't think life could get any better than hearing that single giggle.
Oblivious to Pau's brain malfunctioning over hearing him giggle, Lamine looked down in between them and saw how tightly Pau was gripping his suitcase's handle, his knuckles practically turning white. Without a second thought, he gently placed his hand on top of Pau's and lightly squeezed it.
Pau's entire body burned, especially the hand that Lamine was now practically holding. At this point, he was almost entirely sure that everyone around them was just staring at their hands. There might as well have been a giant billboard with flashing LED lights that said "Pau Cubarsí is completely gone for and in love with Lamine Yamal" right behind Pau because that's sure how he felt during all of this.
"Hey, don't act like Ferran and Pedri don't act that way with each other. Honestly, they're worse than anyone else here." Lamine laughed nonchalantly. "I mean, are we just going to ignore the amount of times Ferran's kissed Pedri on and off the pitch?"
"Okay, woah. Who made this conversation about me and Ferran?"
"Come on, mano. There wouldn't even be a conversation if you guys weren't always acting like you're married!"
Everyone laughed at that and they all soon started throwing friendly jabs at Ferran and Pedri's more than friendly relationship, completely forgetting that they were even talking about Pau and Lamine in the first place.
Pau let out a sigh of relief as he watched Pedri and Ferran both sputter as Gavi and Dani teased them about their constant closeness.
He couldn't wait for the flight for some much needed peace and quiet. Pau already felt like he had completely run out of social energy from the past half hour alone, which he wholeheartedly blamed on Ferran.
While their teammates continued to chatter endlessly, Lamine squeezed his hand again before reluctantly letting go. And Pau would never admit it out loud, but he wished Lamine had held his hand for just a moment longer.
—
After what felt like forever, the team had finally made it to the airport and were now in the air and on their way to the United States for the World Cup. Everyone was buzzing with excitement and anxiety, the energy radiating all throughout the plane. This was the biggest tournament in the entire world and by default, the most important tournament that they would all ever play in, how could they all not be the slightest bit nervous?
Pau was no exception to all of this, he was unbelievably excited for it all. After all, it was going to be his debut at the World Cup at just 19 years old, hopefully with many more to come in the future.
However, ever since he found out that he would be in the starting line up for the national team, Pau couldn't help but feel a sense of churning dread in his stomach every time he did so much as even think about it too much.
On one hand, he was beyond grateful that he had been given the opportunity to represent and play for his country on the biggest playing field in the entire world.
But on the other, he was worried that he wouldn't be able to live up to the expectations and standards that everyone else had for him. After all, he was only 19 years old, it was only natural for him to be anxious about his performance and overall play a bit more than his older and more experienced teammates.
"I can practically hear you stressing out, y'know." Pau turned away from the window and looked over at Lamine, who had just been scrolling through his phone with one airpod in until he spoke up. "Relax, you're going to do great, Cuba. You always do."
Pau's heart raced at that. He always got a bit flustered whenever he received compliments, but it was almost a hundred times worse when those compliments came from Lamine Yamal of all people.
"Thanks, Lamine." Pau smiled at his best friend.
"Don't mention it. What's going on in that head of yours anyways? You're usually not the type to stress this much before tournaments."
"I guess it's just that we're going to be playing in the World Cup of all tournaments, that's a pretty big deal, y'know? Pau let out a soft laugh. "I just don't want to disappoint everyone."
Lamine's gaze softened at that. He set his phone down on his lap before turning to directly face Pau. "Hey, none of that. You're not going to disappoint everyone."
"You can't be sure of that, Lamine." He replied glumly. As much as Pau wanted to be optimistic about it all, he just couldn't silence the voice in the back of his mind that kept telling him that he could easily mess up everything for everyone during this World Cup.
Ever since the match against Atlético where he got sent off the pitch with a red card and Barcelona lost 2-0, Pau found himself more concerned and more self conscious than ever about his performance on the pitch.
Sometimes, it even got to the point where he couldn't help but let his growing insecurities show a bit during practices. Naturally, his teammates from both the Spanish national team and Barcelona had noticed and tried to reassure him that everyone had bad games and that he shouldn't let it affect him too much.
Which Pau definitely appreciated more than anything, but no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't drown out his lingering thoughts of self doubt.
Or, at least, that's what he thought until one sunny day in May.
They had been training since early that morning and finally got their first break around the late afternoon.
Pau was sprawled on the ground with his eyes closed. The warm sun shined down on him, making his skin look golden. His back was practically drenched in sweat, which made his training shirt stick to him uncomfortably. Pau cringed at the feeling, but just sighed as a sudden breeze hit his face.
He had only been lying there for a few minutes before something suddenly blocked the sun, forcing Pau to open his eyes.
Standing in front of him was, of course, Lamine, who was looking down at him with a small smile. The sun seemed like it was shining even brighter than before, its rays bleeding behind Lamine's figure, making him look like he came down straight from heaven or something (which, in Pau's eyes, Lamine was straight from heaven).
Pau was about to ask him why he was just standing there and what he wanted before Lamine sat down at his side and laid down, resting his head on Pau's stomach.
Lamine had never been someone who shied away from physical affection, quite the opposite really. Nevertheless, that didn't stop Pau from doing everything in his power not to move a single muscle in an attempt to make this all feel as normal as possible so that Lamine wouldn't move away. It wasn't everyday that he had Lamine resting his head right on his stomach after all.
The two laid together in comfortable silence while the faint hum of their teammates chatting faded into the calming breeze. Pau glanced down at Lamine, the blonde highlights in his curls practically glowing like a halo as the sun hit them perfectly.
Pau probably would've thought that he was dozing off with the way his soft lips were curved into a small smile and the fact that he hadn't opened his eyes since he laid down.
But, as if he could feel Pau's gaze on him, Lamine's eyes suddenly fluttered open and Pau suddenly found himself looking into Lamine's deep brown eyes, which had, to no one's surprise, become his new favorite color as of two years ago.
"You were good today," Lamine hummed.
"You think so?"
"Of course I do, what kind of question is that?"
"Sorry, sorry." Pau chuckled lightly. "I just don't really think that I did that good. I felt like I was sloppy today."
Lamine looked up at the sky for a few moments before turning onto his side, now completely facing Pau. "I didn't think you were sloppy." He finally replied. "You practiced like you usually do."
Okay, now Pau knew Lamine definitely had to be lying. There was no way he didn't notice how badly Pau had been during practice, especially since it had been like that for a solid few weeks or so now.
"Come on, Lamine. You don't have to lie to me, I know I've been lacking a lot during practices lately. Hell, everyone knows it, that's why everyone's been practicing with me like I'm going to have a complete meltdown one of these days." He tried to laugh it off since he wasn't exactly in the mood for a whole serious conversation about how he basically felt like a failure.
Lamine tilted his head, pressing his cheek against Pau's stomach ever so slightly. "I don't think so." He started absentmindedly tracing patterns on the turf as he continued. "I don't know about everyone else, but I know that I've been playing with you the same as I always do."
Pau stared at the clouds above as Lamine continued to mindlessly trace patterns onto the turf.
Now that Lamine said it out loud, Pau realized that while the rest of their teammates treated him like he was some porcelain doll ready to break at any given moment, Lamine didn't treat him like that at all. Really, if anything, Lamine hadn't treated him any differently than before. He basically treated Pau the exact same way as before the Atlético match, it was like that match had either never happened or Lamine simply didn't think it was enough of a reason to treat Pau any differently.
And for some reason, Lamine treating him the exact same way as he always had made him feel a lot better than the seemingly special treatment that the rest of their teammates had been giving Pau.
Don't get him wrong, it meant the world to Pau that his teammates obviously cared about him so much and didn't want him to spiral any further into his own self doubt. But, he didn't want them, or anyone for that matter, feeling like they had to prop him up on a dozen pillows just to make sure he wouldn't snap.
He figured that was exactly why Lamine not changing the way he played and just the overall way that he interacted with Pau seemed to mean so much to him.
Because even though that one match pretty much shifted everyone else's view of him (even if it was just a little bit), Lamine still saw him the exact same way. To him, Pau was still the same dependable and determined defender on the pitch, and his best friend at the end of the day.
It didn't matter if Pau played any differently on the pitch or if he was dealing with personal insecurities. Because in Lamine's eyes, Pau would always be his best friend regardless of any of those things and that was more than enough to keep him going on and off the pitch.
"Sure, I can." Lamine's honey sweet voice brought him back to the present.
Pau looked at his best friend skeptically. "Right and why's that?"
"Because even if you did somehow manage to disappoint the rest of the team, you wouldn't disappoint everyone."
"You're not making any sense, Lamine."
"It wouldn't technically be everyone," Pau swore he could see the entire galaxy in Lamine's eyes as the two gazed at each other, completely oblivious to their nosy teammates currently trying to peer over at the two teenagers. "Because you could never disappoint me."
Those six words basically rendered Pau useless as his mouth hung slightly agape, blinking stupidly at Lamine as if he was trying to see if this was all some extremely realistic dream of his. He didn't even budge when Gavi and Ferran failed to hide their obnoxiously loud snickering from a few rows in front of them.
"Dude, I think Pau's actually about to pass out. I've never seen him look like that before." Gavi loudly whispered, if it even counted as whispering at that point anyways. "Oh wait, Ferran, make sure to get a picture of this. I want it for when they finally get their heads out of their asses, so I can say 'I told you so'."
At that, Pau was almost entirely sure he heard Ferran's ungodly loud phone camera go off, followed by the man whispering (equally as loud as Gavi), "I feel like Pau's going to die before we even get to play any matches."
Well, that didn't sound that bad with how this day alone was going so far. Pau thought to himself.
"Pau," He turned back to Lamine. "I mean it. If you're still worried about disappointing everyone at any point, just remember what I said."
"You're being awfully sweet to me, Lamine. Are you trying to get something out of all of this?" Pau awkwardly laughed as he tried to ignore how rapidly his heart was beating.
"Nah, you know I'd never stoop that low. You'd probably give me anything I wanted without me even having to ask anyways." His best friend grinned back at him before his smile softened as he continued. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm always proud to be your best friend no matter what."
Distant giggles from their teammates faded into background noise as Pau's breath hitched. He and Lamine had called each other best friends before, basically all the time actually, but in this specific moment, it felt more loving than it had ever felt before.
Maybe it was the way that it was just a private conversation between the two of them, despite all the prying eyes of their nosy teammates. Or maybe it was the way that Lamine was looking at him like he had hung the moon and every single star in the night sky. Whatever it was, Pau felt warmth bloom in his chest as he continued gazing into Lamine's beautiful brown eyes.
Maybe this was the feeling that people talked about when they were in love.
Wait.
Holy shit.
Did that mean Pau was in love with Lamine?
Pau's gaze drifted from Lamine's eyes to the perfect slope of his nose and then, finally, to his soft lips. The air on the plane suddenly felt suffocating, his shirt felt too tight, and his face way too warm.
Lamine's lips parted as he faintly whispered, "I'll always be proud of you, Pau."
Oh.
Oh.
At that very moment, he realized that he didn't just have a childish crush on his best friend.
"Pau?" Lamine called his name in confusion, but Pau could barely hear him with the sudden loud sound of blood rushing through his ears.
He was in love with him.
Pau Cubarsí was in love with Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana.
Well, fuck.