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Sergio sighed heavily as he stared up at the sky…the beautiful day was offending him.
It was the kind of day that came around once every year, where the sun was warm and the breeze cool in just the right way. The perfect kind of day to be at home, laying back on the porch, with his beautiful mate at his side and their beautiful children running around their backyard as he breathed in Luka’s sweet, content scent.
Instead, he watched his mate struggle with basic training drills. He was missing high jumps, and was unusually wobbly when passing through cones. He watched as Luka got increasingly frustrated with himself, huffing with irritation when he missed a pass from two meters away. His scent was souring, and everyone had given him a wide berth to avoid getting caught up in it.
The other guys were becoming increasingly frustrated with Luka too, and not just because of his poor play. The scent of an upset omega was affecting the group, which added to everyone’s moody attitude. This of course only made Zidane punish them further with more drills as he yelled at everyone to get their heads screwed on right.
After angrily calling for a break, Zidane yelled for him specifically. Sergio had to keep his jaw clenched, physically holding back as Zidane began berating him about everything, from the team’s performance to Luka’s attitude. He had to work his knuckles to keep them in check, looking away from the challenge in Zidane’s eyes because of how close he felt he was coming to punching the other alpha in the face.
As he looked away, his eyes caught Luka’s from where the omega was holding some electrolyte drink with both hands nervously, not taking a sip. Luka’s eyes were drawn, eyebrows worried and pout intense as the omega stared back. He had clearly been watching his mate and captain get yelled at for minutes on end. The alpha could easily read the guilt and shame on the other’s face.
Sergio sighed again for what felt like the hundredth time that day, the anger and frustration leaving him as he’s reminded of the eventful morning they had.
.......
Sergio was laying soundly on his back, an arm stretched behind his head under his pillow, when he was woken up by a heavy weight settling next to him on the bed. He hadn’t bothered to open his eyes, he knew what he’d find; his mate coming back to bed from a midnight run to the bathroom, kitchen, nursery, or otherwise. He had, however, opened his eyes when a very small ear was pressed to his side, as another larger ear pressed to his chest gently.
The bare skin of his torso allowed him to feel the twin breaths tickling his sleep warmed skin. Lifting his head to peer down at the pair of matching blonde heads now stuck to him, Sergio felt a surge of affection at the sight. Luka was awake, him and Mateo laying sideways across the bed, facing each other and using him as a warm pillow. His mate had one hand curled close to his own chest while his other gently carded through Mateo’s locks.
From this position, Sergio couldn’t see Luka’s face, but he could see the faint tremor in the omega’s hand as Luka caressed their pups soft, reddened cheeks. He could see Mateo’s eyebrows drawn together, a line of discomfort between them. Mateo was sucking on a pacifier, seemingly awake if the flutter of his long, blonde, and wet eyelashes was any indication.
Another nightmare then. Luka must have gotten up to get him.
His alpha, just a moment ago basking in the calm and domestic sight, stirs at the realization. His scent must change to something more guarded, because as he reaches out to place a warm hand across Mateo’s slowly rising back, Luka turns onto his back to look up at Sergio with big worried eyes. Sergio can see the irritated skin around his omega’s eyes, the reddened nose, and the wetness in his eyes. He feels a harsh pang of heartache and worry deep in his chest.
Luka is not usually one to cry. He’s stubborn to a fault, preferring to find solutions before reaching the point of a breakdown. But he can see in the quivering pout of his delicate, clover shaped lips, and the extreme downturn of his eyebrows, that Luka feels out of his depth. Sergio reaches around Mateo to burrow his hand deeply in his mate’s hair, pressing firmly into the omega’s scent gland as he guides Luka onto his other side so he can scent him.
Luka goes so willingly, whimpering softly when Sergio presses his nose to the omega’s hair. He scents him deeply, rumbling soothingly in tandem. Both blondes respond well, his mate sighing heavily in relief as tension leaves his and Mateo’s bodies. After some time Luka returns to his vigil over Mateo, rubbing the boy’s back carefully. Sergio’s hand joins his, the weight of both hands and the scent of both parents slowly lulling the two year old back to sleep.
Once Sergio is sure the boy is deep in slumber, he turns his attention back to Luka, who seems to be fighting sleep. Luka is heavy against him, no longer carrying tension but exhaustion. Even then, Sergio can tell that his mate is still awake, refusing to take his eyes off his hurting baby.
Sergio tries to reassure the omega, rumbling in a low and tired voice, “Get some sleep, cariño…please.” He waits for Luka to respond, to show any indication that he heard Sergio, or any acknowledgement of his pleas. When he gets no response, Sergio sighs heavily, letting Luka lace their fingers together right across their son’s back, and settles in to get some sleep himself. There’s no use in them both showing up for training exhausted when they have an early session tomorrow.
Several hours later, he’s woken up once again, this time to the sound of Niko fussing right next to his ear. This time when he lifts his head, he finds that the number of children in their bed has quadrupled to include the entire brood that he and Luka have.
They seem to be in various states of sleep. Niko, still in the newborn stage, is the only one up, already fussing for some milk and a change. Sergio moves to settle the baby, sitting up and fully taking in the sight.
The morning light was spilling through the curtains, casting a spotlight on his little family. At some point, whether on their own or if Luka had gotten them he can’t say, the children had formed a nesting pile around their mother. Luka was curled around Mateo and Inés, the little girl holding her twin brother’s hand in comfort. While Klara was wrapped around her younger siblings, Ana was the farthest out, mirroring her father’s position in their sandwich of bodies.
With his arms full of a squirming baby, Sergio scents Niko in an attempt to soothe him as he gets up slowly so as to not disturb the bunny pile that was Sergio’s pack. Once he’s up on his feet, he spends a moment looking at Luka as he bounces Niko. He takes in the sight of his mate, wrapped around his pups. Luka looks exhausted, the dark circles under his eyes are prominent, and the fact that he hadn’t woken up when the sun rays were shining directly onto his face is an even surer indication.
He patters out of the room quietly, heading to the nursery to tend to Niko. Now that he’s on his fifth child, he goes through the motions with practiced ease and without much thought, his mind occupied with worry instead. By the looks of him, it seems Luka had only managed to get some sleep an hour or two before the sun woke Sergio up. If he’s been up all night, it’ll be difficult for the alpha to rouse him in time to make it to practice.
They’d been under immense pressure after their league performance. They dominated the previous season, and the expectation to surpass their past performance weighed heavy on all of them, but especially Sergio.
After their disappointing play in La Liga, and with just one week until the UCL final, Zidane was putting them through the fucking trenches. As captain, he was expected to show up for the team and get them in the mindset to win.
They couldn’t miss a session. Regardless of how hard it was to get Luka up and playing after the night they had, it had to be done. He had to steel himself, prepared for resistance when he went to wake up the rest of his family. What he got instead was arguably worse.
Luka moved with slow, and resigned melancholy, his scent somber and upset. He knew that his mate understood the importance of them showing up, especially when he knew how much pressure Sergio was under. But it was clear that he was reluctant just the same.
Luka held Mateo tightly, eyes wide and watery as he tried his best to stay strong when Mateo’s little fingers had to be forced apart, and the boy’s tight fist gently pried away from their desperate hold on his mother’s shirt. The omega hopelessly tried to calm down the wailing pup, down to the last second as their house help, an older omega named María carried him away.
Sergio reached for his mate, trying to offer comfort when he saw the wobble of Luka’s lip. But the omega brushed him away, pressing both hands to his own mouth, swallowing roughly. Luka stayed there for a moment, eyes closed tightly as the sound of Mateo calling for his mama through sobs got further and further away from them. Sergio could only watch helplessly as his mate calmed himself down and moved to get ready with new fragile resolve.
Sergio was braiding bright, colorful tinsel into Klara’s hair after doing the same to Inés’ when their little brunette quietly asked if mama could stay home today to play. Sergio paused, his hands stilling on the last few strands of hair as he tried his best to find the words to answer the innocent question. He wasn’t the best when it came to comforting words, doubting himself and looking to Luka for reassurement. Luka was always there to give him an encouraging smile and a confident nod.
But right now Luka was scenting their infant, taking in the milky, powdery scent of his skin to soothe them both by rocking the baby back to sleep, and Sergio was finding the words to explain to a six year old that the world can’t come to a stop just because mama is sad. In the silence of him finishing the braid, as he ties the hair together, his nine year old answers for him instead.
“No Klara, mama and papa have to practice so they can win. When they win, mama will be happy.” It’s…deceptively true. Ana is right of course, they’ll both be happy if Madrid wins the Champions League and redeems themselves in the eyes of their management, leadership, and fans.
But if their oldest is providing half-truths for comfort, or if she truly thinks that's the only reason her mother is upset, Sergio can’t tell. Either are equally likely…she’s always been perceptive, just like Luka.
Klara takes this in, twisting her mouth in displeasure before proclaiming with resignation that mama and papa must go to practice then. Sergio feels an overwhelming amount of sad fondness take over him, and in an attempt to push it away, surges to his feet.
He grabs with him an armful of Klara and an armful of Ana, bending them upside down in his secure hold in an attempt to make them laugh. It works, and Sergio feels triumphant when peels of laughter fill the room.
“Tonight after practice, we will all have ice cream and pizza for dinner!” he proclaims with a loud booming announcement. The squeals of joy he gets in response are worth the lecture he’ll inevitably get from Luka.
When he’s driving them to practice, he waits to hear the lecture when he tells the omega that he promised the kids a feast of unhealthy goodness for dinner. But Luka only smiles sadly, and says he wants a chocolate brownie pint.
When Sergio teases him about it, eager for a reaction, Luka only chuckles mildly before quieting once again and turning to glance out the window. Sergio’s heart hurts…he wants to gather him up and smother him with love and reassurance. Sergio would personally fight Zidane and everyone else on the team if it meant allowing Luka to be back home, cuddling his pups as much as he wanted.
But all he can do for now is reach for the other’s hand, and gently rub his thumb against the back of Luka’s. The omega curls around Sergio’s arm, covering their joint hands with his other and leaning his head on the alpha’s bicep as he breathes Sergio in from the scent glands on his wrist.
.......
After what feels like hours of mindless drills, they finally start playing. They’re playing against each other, Sergio in yellow. They were practicing one of Zidane's new tactics, relying on Casemiro to protect the defense while Toni controlled possession and direction, allowing Luka to progress the ball to an attacker. It was electrifying, and Luka couldn’t help but become immersed in the game.
Sergio watched from centre back as Luka’s face twisted with determination, taking a pass from Toni and dodging bodies with renewed swiftness as he began flying towards him. Sergio moved to block the moving bullet that was his mate engrossed in play. But as he dived to block the attack, Luka swivelled sharply, rotating with a pivot and shooting for the goal. The ball went flying past Keylor, hitting the net.
From where he was standing, he could see the smile lines consume Luka’s face, his hazel eyes brightening as a smile stretched wide across his fine features. As Sergio’s own grin spread, awe and admiration making him beam with pride, he heard a crowd of small, loud voices scream with all the might their little lungs could hold, “Goallll!!!!”
He turns sharply, his eyes and ears perked up, and doesn’t have to search for long because a gaggle of excited pups is heading his and Luka’s way, their tiny feet carrying them with the speed and energy of hopping bunnies. Sergio can feel his cheeks pang painfully from the expanding stretch of his smile, grinning with barely contained enthusiasm when Ana and Klara collide with an ecstatic Luka.
Luka is laughing, impossibly beautiful, as he catches them and spins them briefly with a radiant beam and a bright, overjoyed scent. The light dances through their hair, the glow around them is like a halo.
He feels all the tension drain from him, sighing with relief and feeling lightheaded when his alpha finally stops pacing and puffs with satisfaction at his mates' improved scent.
He’s entranced…the scene is just so enchanting and Sergio is desperate to commit it to memory as Luka sets them down and kneels to hug them more tightly. The omega is scenting them, peppering the sensitive skin of their necks with quick, feathery kisses to hear their giggles.
If he had died at that moment, he would be the happiest man alive.
The girls squirm to get away, twisting in their mother’s arms while simultaneously gripping him close. Sergio turns in time to see Inés and Mateo crash into the group embrace. They were rushing over in their slower, but still hurried pace. Luka, seemingly unable to wait for them to reach him, surges forward and wraps his already full arms around the twins.
Their teammates are watching the scene with soft smiles and teasing laughter, everyone slowing down as the scent of happy pups and elated omega filled the pitch. Sergio only feels immense satisfaction. He’s thrilled to share the memory with them, wanting everybody to see how happy his family was, even if he was being left out of the pile of giggling pups.
He was content with María handing him an elated Niko, the pup babbling happily.
Everyone was staring, it was hard not to… one could easily become captivated with Luka on a regular day.
After María had explained to him the genius plan his pups had hatched to come surprise their mother, Sergio felt tears sting his eyes. It was so sweet, unbelievably tender, and he was so very proud. Not just as a father, but as a mate.
Their pups loved their mother, so much so they put their little heads together and planned to make him feel better. He blinked back the tears, Marcelo and Bale laughing at him.
He sniffled, and with his chest puffed and Niko secure in his arms, he bounded heading for his family, cackling wildly as the pups all scurried to get away with giddy shrieking.
They scattered around the pitch, being picked up and played around by the other players. Luka stood still waiting for him, watching him slow down as he reached them, and reaching for Niko instinctively.
Luka bounced the blonde pup, beaming at the sound of his giggles before settling the boy on his hip and kissing his cheeks tenderly. Sergio wraps his arms around his mate, enveloping them both. He presses kisses to Luka’s hairline, breathing deeply as he takes in the pleased scent.
When Luka turns his face up towards him, looking at him with bright hazel eyes, and smiles wide displaying his perfectly imperfect teeth, Sergio is possibly the happiest man alive.
With Luka leaning up on the tips of his toes to press a soft, sweet kiss to Sergio’s cheek, there is nothing that could possibly matter to the alpha. Not the upcoming Champions or whatever League came before.
His whole world is right here.
Although it is a bonus that they end up winning the Champions League after all.