Chapter Text
Pau Cubarsí was a normal student.
He was his college's mascot but that wasn’t that big of a deal. He eats in the dining hall and does poorly in classes just like everyone else. Being the mascot was just another normal thing like all the other stuff he had to do.
There was only one abnormal thing about it, dealing with two separate identities as one person, “Hiding your identity under the suit is crucial for being a mascot, if his identity is revealed there would be no point in having him as the mascot,” That's the speech he got from his boss, a higher up at the university.
It wasn't much of a problem for Pau; he didn't have a huge friend group constantly wondering where he went, so his adventures were never noticed, but he never fully grasped what his boss meant that day.
That's until his roommate, Gavi, noticed. Gavi was a very extroverted guy, he knew almost everyone, and everyone knew him. It wasn't long before he started questioning why Pau would disappear whenever the school had big events. Pau had tried to lie but it was impossible; Gavi had figured him out, and he had nowhere to escape because they slept in the same dorm.
He can remember the awkward conversation like it was yesterday, Gavi asking him where he'd been and Pau giving in. The way Gavi laughed in his face was something he will never forget. Gavi told him that he wouldn't have cared in a million years, and that it was insane Pau had tried to hide it from his own roommate.
Pau remembers his face being quite red as Gavi told him how being a mascot is cool, but the secret policy is for randoms as to not break the immersion.
Pau was no different than an actor.
During huge games, people will question who's inside the suit but if they figured it out they would never spare a second glance. Pau realised that being a mascot is no different than being a part of a club; it just fills up some of your free time.
Pau liked his job, if you would call it that. He doesn't get paid but he gets a scholarship, so it has its benefits. He likes hyping up crowds and making people laugh. He likes that the suit provides a sense of comfort, one where he doesn't feel anxious about it being tied back to the real him.
He does have a small problem though.
Outside of his mascot life, he’s still a normal boy with a not so normal crush.
The university’s star football player, Lamine Yamal. Lamine was everything someone could look for in a crush; he was funny, a classmate, and had no clue who Pau was and because of that, Pau couldn’t get him off his mind.
The two shared a single class yet never had an interaction besides the very first day. The class was small, so the teacher made them do icebreakers; he remembers making a stupid joke that made Lamine laugh, and after that it was all over for him.
Pau didn’t only see Lamine in the classroom, he also saw him as the Mascot. Before and after games, Pau had to interact with Lamine as a fake persona and try to act normal.
Even in the suit, Pau freezes up when Lamine is close, and despite being hidden by the suit his awkward aura can be seen by anyone relatively close.
———
“Pau?” He looks up and into his teacher's eyes, takes a quick survey of the room, and realises everyone’s looking at him, “Do you have an answer to my question?” She says sternly, but he can tell his confusion amuses her.
“Can you repeat it?” Pau asks.
“The question is on the board,” She points. Pau looks over and sees it written large in the Expo marker. Looking at the question, Pau regrets spacing out in the middle of learning the new material. He tries to think of which of the four answers would be the safest choice before remembering a hack he learned as a kid in school.
“Is the answer c?” He asks. The hack is whenever you don't know the answer, pick C.
“Close but not quite right, anyone else?” As she speaks Pau sinks further into his chair. Today luck wasn't on his side, the rule isn’t always right. He tunes her out, mainly because he’s embarrassed but also because he’s too bored to listen. Pau looks over at Lamine, who’s focused on the board, only occasionally going to type stuff on his laptop.
Even when Lamine isn’t playing football he still has an energy that draws people in. It made you want to know more about him. Pau wanted to know him but…
Lamine wouldn’t talk to some normal guy.
———
“And I told him to stop talking to me like I’m a pig and he said ‘Oh I bet you would like that’ like what a fucking bitch am I right?” Gavi looks over at Pau to see him staring into Gavi's soul expressionless for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.
“Why do you keep fighting with this guy and why does every argument involve him flirting with you midway through?”
“If I had a clue this would be over with but it’s been a month of this guy harassing me.” Gavi mumbles to himself before trying to focus on his homework for the 49th time that evening.
As the room goes silent Pau thinks of topics to talk about. His day was pretty unproblematic, despite the one class where he guessed wrong on the question. The only class with his crush in it.
Pau doesn't want to bring up his crush but Gavis the only one that would understand, and it’s nice to be able to tell someone about your crush. “Gavi, I have a crush.” is probably too forward sounding and it might-
Pau looks over to Gavi who’s staring intensely “Did you say you had a crush, or did I mishear that?” Gavi raises his eyebrow, scanning Pau’s face for any signs of truth.
Pau needs to find ways to seem more cool or something because moments like this make him cringe, “Yea, and before you ask it’s not on you.”
“Woah, I get that I'm a jock, but I would never assume that. Also I would've noticed if you liked me so who do you like?” Gavi makes a cartoonishly angry face with his eyebrows pointed down and teeth showing.
“Lamine Yamal.” Paus family always told him, it’s better to do things now then later, and he would rather tell Gavi than hear him complain about not knowing for an hour.
“My friend Lamine Yamal?” Pau didn’t think that far ahead.
“Maybe? I didn't know you were friends with him?”
Gavi looks over with his eyebrows raised, but the rest of his face shows he's amused. “We hang out all the time?”
“You never say who you're gonna hang out with; You just say who you're with friends.”
“Okay, good point.” It’s silent for a moment before Gavi speaks, “What started the crush?”
“Oh my god, if I tell you I might die of embarrassment”
“Why! I'm curious, it's not like I'm a snitch!” Gavi pleads. Pau glares at him from across the room, looking at Gavi lying in his bed with a pout.
“I literally just have a class with him,” Pau says, massaging his forehead to stop a headache from coming in.
“Have you made any moves?” Gavi's eyebrows raise, but he's disappointed to see Pau shaking his head no. “So you have a crush, and you haven't done a thing?”
Pau sighs, hiding his face by covering it with his pillow, “Don't judge me Gavi…”
“I'm not trying to judge you. I'm just wondering, if you like him so much why haven't you done anything? It will only get worse if time goes on.”
It's silent for a few minutes after that before Gavi switches the topic to something else that happened during his day.
He had a point. If the crush is getting so bad he has to rant about it, then it's already a problem. Pau was usually calm; if he had a crush, he would wait for it to go away. This wasn't like his usual self.
———
The loud buzzer rings throughout the stadium, signaling the end of a game. Slowly, people start to make their way out onto the field to celebrate the win. It would be easy for Pau to forget he's in a mascot suit if half his vision wasn't covered with mesh. As Pau walks out onto the field, he tries to focus on what's happening around him so he doesn't accidentally trip and crush a media person.
Players walk past him, sometimes having short one-sided conversations or giving him a high five. When nothing happens, he will wave to fans as they slowly exit the stadium. It’s all going pretty smoothly until Pau sees Lamine Yamal walking up to him. In the suit, Pau’s vision is limited, but Pau thinks his brain subconsciously knows where he is constantly, making it easy to know when he will approach.
“Cat Culer! Did you enjoy the game?” Lamine asks, earning a nod from the mascot. Lamine looks energetic despite Pau knowing he's tired. Under the stadium lights, he looks like a star. Lamine smiles at the mascot, taking some deep breaths, adrenaline still rushing through him.
“Good, what was your favorite part?” Lamine adds. Pau obviously can't talk under the costume, so he has to resort to his miming abilities.. He pretends to kick a fooball into the net and then finishes it with Lamine's iconic celebration. “You liked Fermin’s goal?” Lamine jokes. Pau stomps his foot and points to Lamine to get the message across. “Oh, was it my goal?” The mascot nods again, earning a cocky smirk from Lamine. “I'll score at the next game for you.” He says before walking away to his teammates.
———
He was back in class. He could hear the person next to him chewing his gum, each time the boy's mouth opening and closing with a gross smack that gave Pau goosebumps. Pau tried to focus on the notes he was typing on his laptop, but his eyes were hurting from staring at the screen. Yet he didn't want to look at his teacher and then get called on for a question causing a repeat of last class, so Pau does what Pau does best and looks at his crush across the room.
Lamine had three people he talks to the most during class. At the beginning of class they are usually not talking but as it goes on they start to whisper out of boredom. Pau knows one of their names is Pedri but he forgot the rest.
Lamine had his friends but he knew almost everyone in the class, everyone besides Pau. Pau has seen him interact with almost every classmate; some he knew from sports and others from friends of a friend.
Pau wanted to be noticed. Not in the way where he wanted attention, but he wanted to be recognized as someone who was there.
But how would Pau do that? He doesn't go to the parties, (despite Gavi inviting him) and he doesn't do any extracurriculars where he could interact with Lamine.ll he has was this class and being the mascot.
The only thing he could do is flirt while in the mascot suit and that was a crazy idea.
Although… it might work.
Pau needs someone to bring him down to reality because he’s dreaming a bit too big. In the background he can hear Lamine's group of friends laughing. He tries not to look but he gives in when he hears Lamine giggle.
Pau looks over to see Lamine's friends. The one with an eyebrow slit making gestures while whispering, Pau thinks he’s telling a story. The other friend with the tattoo is hiding his laughing face by shoving it in a book. Lamine is sitting next to the wall with his eyes tearing up but mouth covered with his hands to not let a giggle out, it’s not working because Lamine's cheeks and eyes are clearly smiling.
The teacher stops the lesson for a second to walk over to the pair of desks in the corner. “Did I say something during the lesson to make you boys laugh?” She asks, staring directly at them.
“No, we weren’t laughing at all.” Says the friend with the tattoo.
“Hector, I may be old, but I'm not stupid.” Pau tries not to laugh.
———
Pau walked into his dorm room to the sound of English music playing out loud. Gavi, who was lying in bed, immediately gets up to turn it off. “No, it’s okay; you can keep the music on.”
“Are you sure? I don't wanna bother you.” Gavi stops his action but doesn't move away from the phone.
“No no, it’s okay.” Pau walks over to his bed and places his backpack down near his desk. Gavi leaves the music alone and jumps onto his bed.
“How did class with Lamine go?” Gavi smirks.
“It went fine, thanks. How did your class go?” Pau says, ignoring a specific part of the question.
“Remember how I told you about the dude I was arguing with yesterday? Apparently his name is Jude, and he decided today was another great day to annoy me.” Gavi groans as he recalls.
“Did you start the argument today, or was it him?"
“He started to do something annoying first, so I said something about it.”
“That's… So you started it?” Gavi denies Pau's claim, flipping over in bed, mumbling to himself.
“Did you come up with a plan to flirt with Lamine yet?” Gavi asks.
“I came up with one, but it seems so ridiculous,” Pau admits, looking at Gavi's disapproving face.
“I'm sure your idea is good. Just tell me."
“Okay… What if I flirt with Lamine while in the mascot suit? That way I can do it in a normal way and seem confident enough." He looks over to see Gavis' opinion, only to be met with a blank face.
Gavi slow-blinkes a few times before responding, “I know what I said before but that might be the first dumb idea you've had since the year started."
“How's it dumb? I don't even know if Lamine likes boys."
Gavi cackles, “Oh that kid definitely likes boys that's not even a question."
“How do you know that for sure though? He looks so straight and all his friends look straight too.” Pau explains. Lamine's friends look like
Gavi processes that before asking, “Wait.. Do I look straight?”
“You're gay?!” Pau shouts before earning a
“I thought you knew this! I literally dated a guy last year for a month! I took him to our dorm, me and him sat on the same bed watching a football match with no shirts on! That’s so fucking gay!”
“I thought you guys were just friends who had crushes on each other! I knew you were gay; I just didn't know you knew. I thought it was that stage where you have a crush but don’t realize that’s what it is yet and so you just think it’s normal to do that shit!” Pau rambles.
“So if I was gay and had no clue you would keep it from me?!” Gavi says with his eyes wide.
“No! I was trying to hint at it, and I thought it might've been working." Pau tries to explain, but he's only met with Gavi's loud laughter.
“Pau, you might be stupider than I thought,” Gavi says, crying and laughing. Pau starts laughing with him; how could he not have seen it? It literally happened in front of his eyes, and he didn't even notice. “Speaking of gay…”
“Oh my god, Gavi don't-” Pau interrupts.
“Okay just define a plan with Lamine? You can't keep deflecting this question because I will keep asking; I will be pissed if your plan is bad and you end up breaking your heart or even his.”
“Fine! I know it's stupid, but fine. Like I was saying, what if I just flirted in the mascot suit? It's not like it's never been done. If it works, I can reveal it's me, and if it doesn't, he will never know it's the guy from his class.”
“Won't this hurt you?” Gavi asks, receiving a confused look from Pau. “Are you sure this won't hurt your mental health? Thinking ‘what if he just wants the mascot and not me’.” The room goes silent for a minute, no one knowing how to fill the silence. Gavi sighs before conjuring up something to say,“Look. It's not the worst idea ever, but to be honest I'm only allowing it because it will be funny as shit to see a furry flirting with Lamine.”
“I'm not a fucking furry!” Pau laughs as he throws his pillow at Gavi. The pillow is immediately thrown back at him. “I'll promise it won't hurt him or me.”
“Okay fine, I believe you.” Gavi throws up his arms in surrender before he continues. “Tonight there’s a party hosted by a guy called Marc, I think? Do you want to come?”
“I don’t know… You know I’m not good with those kinds of things.” Pau replies looking down at his hands.
Gavi gives a concerned, but heartfelt look as he speaks,“I don’t want to pressure you, but also I don’t want you to keep spending each night alone. You don’t have to drink or dance; you can just sit in the corner and play on your phone if you want.” Gavi stands up from his bed, collecting his belongings from around the room.
“I’m sorry, but I’m just not feeling it tonight,” Pau admits.
“So you might be feeling up to it other nights?” Gavi jokes, earning a slap on the back from a giggling Pau.
Gavi chuckles before he starts talking again.“Okay, I’m gonna go to the pre-game. I’ll see you if I don't get lucky.” Pau rolls his eyes at his comment. Gavi walks to the door and leaves the room with a tiny wave.