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Cristiano is right on time on the first day of training. He goes through the familiar motions: greeting everyone, getting his height and weight taken, running under the observing eye of the medical team, putting on his cleats, stepping on grass again after a month of pavement.
The new kids (and it feels right calling them kids when he's at least 7 years older than them) are huddled together until Carlo calls them over. He's already had hugs with Morata, Casemiro, Nacho and Caravajal, knowing them from before. As they walk over, Illaramendi smiles at him and Cristiano pats him on his back. He knows how important it is to be welcoming.
From the corner of his eye he sees Isco carefully glancing at him. He can guess why he isn't approaching; his head was probably filled to the max with how ego-maniac Cristiano is and how his teammates have to say he's the best in the world or else…
Cristiano shakes his head as he goes down for push-ups. He's read about Isco saying Messi is the best. The kid is probably terrified of him. He tries to smile at him, pass to him more, but Isco keeps quiet and away.
-
Cristiano follows Morata to the Jacuzzi at Valdebebas. They settle in, Cristiano choosing music on his iPod. Álvaro smiles at him when he looks up.
"What are you so happy about?" Cristiano shoots at him while messaging his ankle. It's the first day of pre-season and everyone else is just a little bit miserable.
"You know, we won Euro's, all of my friends are here, everything's good," Álvaro says and he's just really happy.
"Speaking of your friends…" Cristiano raises his eyebrow at Álvaro. "Isco is hiding from me like he thinks I'm going to kill him."
"He is not," Álvaro is quick to defend his friend, but at that very moment, Isco passes by, looks at them, raises his hand in an almost wave and scurries.
"Right," Cristiano frowns. "He does not."
-
They travel to England. Cristiano always feels something in the pit of his stomach when he goes there. He stares out the window with his headphones in and doesn't pay attention to anything going on the plane.
He sticks close to Fábio after they land, on the bus, while warming up, but during the game he finds a rhythm with Isco. They work. Their passes work. They score. The excitement for the new season is bubbling up in him.
He also feels Isco's arm around him after his goal. The arm that goes around his lower back and then slides down. He knows what adrenaline and happiness do to you, but he thinks maybe, maybe, this means the kid is finally starting to see him for what he is, rather than for his image.
-
He goes to the park that's inside their gated community with Cris Jr. It's empty and Cris walks straight to the sand. Cristiano watches his son play for a while, takes a few pictures of him to send his mom, when a huge dog runs into him. He falls down and the dog starts licking his face immediately. Through his laughter, Cristiano hears the dog's owner calling "I'm so sorry!" and the dog is pulled away from him.
Still laughing, Cristiano gets up and finds himself looking into Isco's eyes. Isco takes a step back, his eyes looking back and forth between his dog and Cristiano.
"I didn't know you got a place here."
Isco nods and looks at the dog again. "Did he hurt you?" he finally asks, and Cristiano shakes his head.
"He's cute," Cristiano says. "And famous."
Isco bites his lower lip, rubs at his forehead. "I'm sorry," he says.
"I don't care that you called your dog Messi."
"You don't?"
"No…" he draws out his answer. Isco still looks kind of scared, so Cristiano just laughs and walks over to pick up Cris. "Come over for dinner," he says when he comes back to stand next to Isco. He watches Isco's eyes until they shine and he says, "Okay".
They start walking. "This is Cris," Cristiano picks up his son's hand and reaches it out.
"Nice to meet you," Isco tells Cris, and Cris demands to be put down so he can pet the dog.
-
The match against Lyon isn't very good and nothing works for them. Cristiano is subbed off a mere minute after Isco, and goes to sit next to him on the bench. The kid looks depressed and Cristiano pushes his elbow into his side. "It's okay," he whispers to him. "It's just preseason."
Isco looks at him bewildered. "You just yelled at the ref for not pulling out a yellow card."
Cristiano just shrugs, pouts a little. "I can't help it if I'm passionate."
Isco laughs so hard the entire bench stares at them, and Cristiano just raises his hands like saying 'wasn't me'.
-
They get back to Madrid around 4am. Most of them scramble off to get home and get some sleep, but Isco pauses in front of Cristiano, asks, "Do you want to get breakfast?"
Cristiano blinks at him. "It's 4am."
"I can make pancakes."
"Yeah, that's healthy," Cristiano laughs, but grabs his bag and follows Isco to his car.
He looks around the living room while Isco is in the kitchen. There's nothing there yet, really, other than a couch, a TV and a framed picture of Malaga's first team official photo. When he goes into the kitchen, he asks, "Are you going to frame our picture too?"
Isco flips a pancake. "Probably."
"Do you want a picture with Messi to hang up, because I can make that happen?"
"You're funny," Isco deadpans as he drops a pancake onto Cristiano's plate. "Really funny."
"I know," Cristiano talks with his mouth full, swallows and nudges Isco's arm. "At least you're not that scared of me anymore."
"I was never scared of you," but Cristiano laughs, raises an eyebrow, says, "Prove it," and when Isco drops the spatula into the sink and presses their lips together, Cristiano isn't completely convinced but has to admit it's a good effort.
-
They wake up together Thursday morning when they have to go to practice. They made it to Cristiano's house after the pancakes so Cristiano could take his son to preschool, and he arranged for his mom to pick him up, so they had the house all to themselves.
Cristiano smiles at him through hooded eyes, squeezes his hand and gets up to the shower. Isco tries not to blush as he watches Cristiano's naked form walking away or hears the water running. He covers his head with a pillow until Cristiano pulls him out of bed so they won't be late. He also kisses him as he hands him a cup of coffee after they're both dressed.
Cristiano's car is still at the Bernabéu so Isco drives them. When they get out of the car in Valdebebas they run into Álvaro who has his eyebrows raised up so high at them that Isco hisses at him, "Shut up," before Cristiano can see.
The two of them fall back, Álvaro trying to pry information from him.
"Shut up!" Isco says again and Álvaro rolls his eyes. "I don't actually care about the details," he says. "I'm just happy they'll stop making fun of me now."
"What?"
They get to the door and Álvaro jogs in, leaving a confused Isco behind. It's not until practice later, when they all show off their skills, that Isco realizes what he meant, when he watches Cristiano bouncing a ball on his knees and Isco just can't look away.
"It's his thighs, right?" Ángel whispers to him, runs away to Pepe before Isco can turn around properly, and they spend the rest of the session laughing at him. Álvaro smirks at him. Cristiano does too, but it doesn't seem so bad coming from him.