Chapter Text
Practice started in 5 minutes and Pau was yet to enter the pitch.
The locker room was nearly empty, only the sound of Lamine shuffling softly somewhere across the room was heard from where Pau was standing.
He didn’t pay much mind to the other boy as he began to lace up his boots. Him and Lamine came to training together and separated once arriving most days, Pau didn’t see a problem with it. He enjoyed his own company as much as he enjoyed Lamine’s.
Gathering his things, he prepared to head out, wondering what tactics Flick would ask them to focus on in today’s session, before glancing around the silent room. Lamine nowhere to be found.
His smile faded, usually Lamine walked out beside him, whispering about Eric and Joan’s “divorce era” or about the looks Fermin gave to both Rapha and Alejandro, and he would tell Lamine he should really lower his screen time in between laughs.
Although the difference in routine continued to weigh on him, he headed towards the exit.
-
As he crossed the room he stopped at the feeling of arms on his waist, Lamine’s arms. The weight of the other’s body felt heavier on his chest than his back, he knew the feeling well.
A slight blush crept up his neck from the shock, causing Lamine to let out a small chuckle before he spoke.
“Hi golden boy” a small smile adorned Lamine’s face, and Pau shifted in his arms.
“Hi, thought you left.” Pau whispered softly. Wide eyes staring into Lamine's lazy ones, surprise evident in his face, whatever had been going on between them had never reached the locker room. He allowed himself to think that maybe he wasn’t crazy, maybe Lamine was hinting their rules were bullshit from the start, maybe he had broken up with his gf. Endless possibilities rushed to his head before Lamine’s low voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Of course not, Cucu…” Lamine murmured, eyes glazed over, zeroing in on the defender’s lips. Pau didn’t fail to recognize his expression; it was the same as when they first started all of this.
Lamine didn’t carry the same expression when he kissed her.
As if Pau had him in a daze.
“Do you think we have time? To you know, practice a bit?” Lamine's breath was shaky as he spoke, looking into the defender’s eyes.
Pau simply nodded.
With the okay, Lamine leaned in and pressed his lips against Pau’s softly.
Pau craved the contact, and he felt the winger smile against his lips as he gripped his kit tightly, melting into the kiss.
There was a hand pressed against the crook of Pau’s neck as Lamine deepened the kiss, and he let out a small whimper. Too eager to feel embarrassed.
They pulled back slightly, giggles leaving both of them. Lamine's hand shifted again, this time gently resting on Pau’s blushing cheek. That familiar expression never once leaving his face.
When Pau kissed Lamine, he didn’t see fireworks, and he didn’t feel butterflies in his stomach like he did the first time. What he felt now was familiarity, the sort of comfort that came from a home cooked meal and the warm Catalonian sun. He felt at peace, and he wanted Lamine to know that too.
He wanted Lamine to know the truth.
So, when Lamine leaned back in, Pau stopped him. Letting out a small chuckle at the other boy’s confused expression before speaking.
“I broke up with Lucia.”
-
He watched Lamine’s face fall once the words slipped past his lips, expression unreadable.
And when Lamine pulled away from him, Pau felt the urge to sob.
“What?” Lamine questioned. He laughed slightly, although it lacked humor.
Pau tried to speak, tried to explain himself, but the words caught in his throat. The expectations he had created in his mind vanished, and reality settled in.
His panicked gaze met Lamine’s cold unreadable expression, searching for a sign.
For him to suddenly laugh and go, “Thank God, Cucu.”
To show Pau he wanted him too.
The sign never came, and Lamine pushed Pau away softly.
“You don’t know what you’re doing Cuba, let’s go. We’ll talk about it later.” The winger avoided eye contact as he spoke, simply signaling for Pau to follow him with a wave of his hand.
Pau knew it was pointless to beg for an explanation, pointless to force someone as stubborn as Lamine to look him in the eye and tell him he didn’t feel the same.
So he didn’t.
They walked to the pitch in silence.
One word lingered in the back of Pau’s mind, eyes following the younger boy closely.
Coward.
7 months earlier
The season had just begun and Pau was already stressed, their schedule was busy and unforgiving. Barely leaving him with any free time.
Lamine however, thought that a random Friday evening before an away match against Sevilla was the perfect time for Pau to come over to play FIFA.
“Come on Cuba! We haven’t hung out just us since pre-season. I miss you!” Lamine’s whines came from where Pau’s phone was propped up on his desk, his attention on the bigger screen in front of him.
Lamine’s insistent complaining grew louder and more persistent.
Pau groaned, debating hanging up.
Instead he sighed and closed his laptop slowly, growing bored of the anime he had started. Pau hated to admit that Lamine made a pretty good point, since the start of the season he had only seen Lamine during training or on the rare occasion of a team hangout. Still, he wasn’t fully convinced by the idea of leaving his house for a few rounds of FIFA.
“Dude not to yuck your yum right now, but we have a game tomorrow. An away game at that. I really just wanna stay home and-” Pau’s explanation was cut short as Lamine’s voice came through the phone speaker.
“Okay? I’ll just come over then, problem solved. See you in a few Cucu!”
Pau opened his mouth to respond, only to hear a beep signaling the end of their call.
Shaking his head, he picked up his phone and made his way to the living room. Trying to convince Lamine to listen to him was an impossible task, so he made his way to the living room to start up the console while waiting for him to come over.
-
The doorbell rang 26 times before Pau could get downstairs to open the door.
“Lamine what the hell you could’ve just texted me.” Pau said as he let Lamine in, scolding him, fighting to keep a smile off his face. The younger simply walked past him, placing the takeout he had brought on the kitchen counter.
“Whatever, be happy Cuba. I got us Chinese!” Lamine began unpacking the food as Pau watched, the wrinkled smiley face on the plastic bags taunting him silently.
Lamine’s voice broke him out of his trance.
“So, are you going to eat or not?” He raised an eyebrow, somehow managing to stuff his face with chow mein in the two seconds that Pau zoned out for.
“Yeah, give me a second” Pau locked the door before walking over to where Lamine was seated.
He smiled once he got closer, noticing the other boy had already set out a plate and a fork for him.
-
After they ate Lamine rushed to the living room, both controllers in hand. Pau moving “too slowly” according to him. The loading screen for FIFA was already displayed on the TV, being that Pau had started up the game before Lamine arrived.
They played 8 rounds, Lamine winning most of them.
“Dude, are you good? That's like the worst you’ve played in years, Cucu.” Lamine laughed as he nudged Pau’s shoulder with his.
Pau just laughed, ignoring the fact that he felt like he was ready to burst.
Every round they played Lamine was touching him in one way or another, whether it was him patting Pau’s thigh after a 5-2 loss or kneading his shoulder to convince him to “go easy on him” for the next one. Lamine didn’t seem to acknowledge the amount of physical contact he initiated, and it drove Pau insane.
He convinced himself he just felt embarrassed, that he was just never overly touchy with Lamine and that was why he couldn’t get his mind off of it.
Pau’s phone pinged as they settled down into the couch, reaching the part of the hangout where they just sat in the comfortable silence they had created. He reached down to answer it himself before Lamine tackled him, taking the phone out of his hands to read the text himself.
“Hey Pau, what are you up to? I miss you lots! Heart, heart.” Lamine pitched up his voice, laughing as Pau attempted to wrestle the phone out of his hands.
“C’mon man it’s not that funny to give it back, it’s not like Sara doesn’t text you the same stuff.” Pau murmured, yet to get his phone back.
Lamine stilled at the mention of Sara, calming down and passing Pau his phone back.
Something in the way Lamine reacted struck Pau as odd, but he didn’t mention it. Opting to reply to Lucia instead.
-
lucia 💗
hey pau, what are u up to?
i miss you lots <3 <3
hey, im hanging with lamine right now
but i miss you too
lucia 💗
oh ok!!
did he go over?
yeah
he wanted to play fifa
lucia 💗
ahh i see
i’ll call you when he leaves then!!
love you pau
love you too
-
Pau pocketed his phone quickly, glancing over to Lamine who was scrolling on his.
The other boy wore a blank expression before looking up at Pau, having felt his eyes on him.
“Hi” Lamine smiled shyly, scratching his neck softly.
“Hey. What’s with the face?” Pau said, shifting slightly to be closer to the winger. Fighting to ignore Lamine subconsciously leaning towards him.
“Nothing, just thinking.” Lamine sighed as he twisted slightly, laying his head on Pau’s shoulder.
“Overthinking?” Pau laughed, placing his head atop Lamine’s.
“No.” Lamine shifted again as he murmured, and Pau held in a laugh as he stared at the blank wall. Trying to memorize the feeling of Lamine’s body heat on his.
“That pout says otherwise”
Lamine laughed at that, lifting his head and twisting his body so that he could look Pau in the eyes. Pau felt his face heat up, stirring in his spot on the coach, and Lamine moved even closer.
“Hey Cucu, I’ve been thinking. You know how I'm with Sara and you’re with Lucia?” Lamine fidgeted as he spoke.
Pau fought back the urge to roll his eyes at the mention of Sara. It’s not like he had a problem with Lamine spending time with someone other than him. He just didn’t like the girl; she acted weird around him and barely acknowledged him when Lamine brought her around.
“Yeah, what about it?” Pau forced a smile on his face as he answered, Lamine’s uncomfortable energy worrying him slightly.
“I have an idea, just don't freak out, okay? I need you to hear me out first.” Pau straightened up, nodding along at what Lamine was saying, his heartbeat erratic.
“I’ve never kissed anyone before, and I know you haven’t either because you would’ve told me, right Pau?” The defender furrowed his eyebrows as he nodded, confused by the topic of the conversation and as to why Lamine called him Pau, being that the other rarely used his first name.
“I think maybe we should practice. You know, for our girls?” Lamine stared at Pau, awaiting an answer.
“What?” Pau stiffened at the thought, maybe he misinterpreted what Lamine had said. The suggestion something pulled out of his dreams.
“Practice kissing. Relationship stuff. I mean we’re both inexperienced, maybe we’ll learn something with each other." Lamine looked down at his hands, his ears gaining a reddish hue.
Pau was taken aback, it’s not that he doesn’t want to do that with Lamine. It’s the fact that this opportunity presented itself. He imagined the feeling of Lamine’s plush lips against his, and his rough hands intertwined with his calloused ones.
He didn’t think twice about his reply.
“Okay. I think we could do that.” Pau whispered, so low Lamine might’ve missed it.
He didn’t.
His head shot up, as if he was surprised with Pau’s answer. He looked as if he thought the idea was so far-fetched that never in a million years would Pau agree.
“Okay, wow I didn’t think you’d actually agree” Lamine’s response caused both him and Pau to let out dry chuckles. Pau studied the boy in front of him as he laughed, noticing a look in his eyes he’d never seen before, a glimmer of hope ignited in his heart, although he didn’t know why.
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, sorry if that sounds weird. But I figured making some rules would help both of us right?” Pau nodded again, struggling to find the words to reply with. Thoughts racing a mile an hour.
Lamine pulled out his phone and Pau tilted his head, still confused at where this conversation was headed.
Lamine noticed and rushed to explain.
“Oh sorry, I just have some of them in my notes already.” Lamine didn’t look up as he answered Pau's questioning gaze.
Pau was dumbfounded, and unable to hold in his laugh.
“What's funny?” Lamine wore a frown, still looking down at his phone, typing something quickly.
“Nothing, nothing. Now what are the rules?” Lamine smiled and flipped the phone over, showing him the screen containing the (new and recently edited) rules he had made.
New Note
Pau chuckled; Lamine hadn’t even bothered naming the rules. Yet he continued reading.
rule #1 - no tongue (no offense but ew dude)
rule #2 - no telling ANYONE this is strictly between us
rule #3 - no sharing beds i don’t want it to get weird sorry
rule #4 - no kissing in the locker rooms god forbid we get a lecture from flick or pedri
rule #5 - if we break up with our girlfriends this ends.
Pau’s breathing stuttered at the last rule, but he still looked up into Lamine’s eyes. Wearing a small smile when he saw the worried expression reflecting off of his eyes.
“I’ll do it.”
Lamine jumped up from the couch, wide eyed as he took Pau in for a hug.
“Okay. Okay wow uhm.” Lamine stuttered as he backed up slowly letting Pau go as he stared at him, his eyes squinted softly, as if he was still skeptical of the defender.
“I mean, we can start now?”
“Okay. Let’s start now” Pau’s response came, unhurried.
They had all the time in the world.