Chapter Text
There was a box of chocolates sitting right outside his door. It brought back painful memories, memories he thought he had already forgotten.
Leo gingerly picked it up, eyeing it from all sides, trying to find out who had placed it there. But there was no note, just the expensive chocolate mocking him.
He knew what this meant. Either Gerard Piqué had found a way to torment him even in the safety of the Argentina national team building (unlikely, they were very strict on who was allowed access) or someone on the national team was having the same laugh as him.
For a moment he hoped it was the first one, because he at least was used to that. But even he knew that was unlikely, so it must be one of the young Alpha's that now made up this team.
Great.
This was just what Leo needed right now. Lionel Scaloni, newly appointed coach, had barely convinced him to stay after yet another disastrous World Cup performance.
Leo still wasn't sure if this was the right decision for the team. He had already given his everything, but surely they must have realised by now that his everything wasn't enough.
And now there was an Alpha mocking him. Of course.
He had seen the comments and the reactions from his country every time he failed to win them anything.
"Who's surprised, with an Omega as captain…"
"It's pathetic really, I hope at least the team gets a good fuck out of him, if he can't perform on the pitch."
–> "Doubt it, he's barely a real Omega."
"Did you hear the interview of Higuain that Pessi always wears scent patches and doesn't allow them in his nest? For what reason did they even keep him on the team?"
–> "Maybe his pussy is really good?"
Surely most of his teammates must agree with them. Geri certainly had…
Maybe they even talked to the Spanish Alpha, getting tips on 'how to embarrass Leo the most'.
Why else would they have chosen this particular brand of chocolate?
– – 2008 – –
Leo almost skipped into the Barcelona gym, hands clutched around a small box of chocolates. Argentinian chocolates. It's been ages since he had some, they were too expensive to always fly in.
"Chiquito, what have you got there?"
Dinho was already smiling at him. The older Alpha was on his way out of the team, but Leo tried not to be sad about it. Geri was returning instead!
"Just some sweets… they were by my locker! It's my favourite chocolates from back home!!"
"Ohhh, chiquito, are you being courted?"
"Mhh?" Leo was already too busy letting one of the chocolates melt in his mouth to really answer.
"Who's being courted?! Our little Leo? By whom?" Puyol wrapped an arm around Leo from behind, causing the Omega to purr and nuzzle into the Alpha's scent. He wasn't sure what they were talking about, but he had his treats and was surrounded by the two Alphas who made him feel save. It probably didn't matter anyway.
They only pulled away when Pep walked in scolding the Alphas for gossiping instead of training. Leo just earned a fond smile when he skipped past to do his stretches.
The next day there was another box waiting for him, this time with a small note:
Don't eat them all at once this time. ;)
Leo frowned for a moment. How did they know he ate the entire box during training yesterday?
He shrugged; who cared, he had new chocolates. But maybe this time he should really keep them until after training, maybe as a reward…?
For now he was already getting late and he didn't want Pep to make him run laps, Leo hated running laps.
But when he entered the field it was as if all the chocolate and Pep and everything else was forgotten.
"GERII!!"
He took off in a sprint, jumping into the tall Alpha's arms, and immediately buried his face in his neck. He had missed his best friend.
The vinegar scent still made his eyes water like the first time he had smelled it, when Geri had presented shortly before he had left for Manchester.
"Oh muto– how can someone so tiny be so heavy?" Geri sniffed the air, his hands tightening where they were wrapped around Leo's thighs until he whined in pain. "Wait, pulga did you present? Let me smell you…"
The Alpha buried his face into Leo's neck, the Omega too helpless to protest as Geri scraped his teeth along his scent gland. He probably would have bitten him, if not for Pep's voice behind them.
"And if these gentlemen could finally bring themselves to separate so that we can begin."
Geri immediately let go of Leo, who tumbled to the ground, landing hard on his butt, his legs too wobbly to hold him up.
"Oops sorry, pulga."
Geri made no move to help him up, simply chuckled and began to follow the rest of the group.
Leo stayed on the ground for a moment too dazed by the amount of Alpha pheromones, and the fact that Geri hadn't changed a bit since they last saw each other.
– – 2019 – –
Leo shuddered, and left the chocolates laying where they were.
Courting gifts, my ass!
At breakfast and during the morning session he kept his eyes on the rest of the team. One of them must have put them there.
He was sure it wasn't Nico Otamendi. He knew him too long and it didn't make sense that he would just now start with this bullshit.
Nor Kun, he knew Kun.
Angel, Lo Celso and the other Nico – Tagliafico, or something – were Betas so they obviously weren't the culprits either…
Great, that left about 18 other guys, who were potentially making fun of him behind his back.
Leo scratched at the large scent patch on his neck, the skin beneath it permanently itchy and irritated, but it was necessary.
This team was still trying to find itself and he didn't need to make Scaloni's job harder than it already was, by stinking up the place with his scent. It seemed like the Alphas were distracted enough.
Leo could feel a group of them watching him stretch from afar. Leandro and Rodrigo were practically wrapped around each other, laughing at something Lautaro had said.
They both made him nervous.
Rodrigo was one of the new ones, brought in by Scaloni and so far he had been friendly with everyone, especially Leo, but something about him made Leo shiver.
And Leandro… Well, Leo still couldn't wrap his mind around how someone could have such intense and pretty eyes. Leo had never managed to hold a conversation with him longer than three sentences, before everything got too much and he fled.
And now they were watching him, laughing about him. Probably about their perfect prank on him.
Leo clenched his jaw. No way he would give them the satisfaction of a reaction. No he would just ignore the chocolates and hope that they would just get bored.
The next day the box was gone. Leo let out a breath.
Maybe they had taken it back, or maybe the cleaning staff had thrown it away. Either way it was a weight off his shoulders. For breakfast he silently sat down in his usual seat between Angel and Kun.
Kun immediately put some of his own scrambled eggs onto Leo's plate, while Angel reached over the table to fill up his coffee cup.
Leo smiled, that's why they were his best friends.
But then Kun dropped something else into his lap, making Leo freeze.
"Here, these were standing outside our room this morning. I bet they're for you." Kun even had the audacity to wink at him, while Leo's trembling hands looked down at… another? the same? box of chocolate.
Angel leaned over as well: "Ohhhh, they even got your favourites."
Leo wanted to cry. It was his own fault that he never told any of them what Piqué had done in the past. Because yes these were his favourites, until about 2010.
"Please don't…" He whispered, trying not to let his voice crack. His fingers played with the note taped on top of the box.
Wait… the first one didn't have a note…
He pulled his hand away.
Because you're as sweet as them ;)
Leo quickly crumpled up the note and blushes. They hadn't noticed that Leo hadn't accepted the first one. Or they had and they didn't care. His humiliation was more important than giving up.
He looked up at Kun still grinning at him mischievously.
"You can keep them, Kun. I'm going back to bed. Can you tell Scaloni I'm not feeling well?"
Without waiting for a reply, he got up and walked back to their room.
As soon as the door closed behind him the first tear rolled down his cheek. This wasn't fair. He had thought he had escaped this sort of torment once Piqué had gotten bored of it. And now even Kun and Angel, his save spaces and comfort people, were joining in on it.
(Okay, Leo admitted to himself, they probably didn't know it was a prank. They probably thought someone was really interested in Leo.)
Leo scoffed, as if…
He looked around on his bed, bare except the standard pillow and a blanket Dinho had gifted him when he left Barcelona. If not for the pill bottle of suppressants on his nightstand, nobody could have guessed an Omega was sleeping here. It made his skin itch, the urge to build a nest getting stronger again, but he just shook his head.
No Leo, what would they think of him when they saw the pathetic excuse he tried to call nest.
Even Kun would laugh at him. No it was easier to just not.
He couldn't stop himself from stealing one of the Alpha's hoodies from his suitcase though, inhaling the fresh scent of laundry detergent with just the right hint of Kun to keep his Omega from ripping apart the hamper in their bathroom for a recently worn one.
This was the most he deserved. He wrapped the long sleeves tightly around his fists to keep himself from nibbling on them, and destroying them. Instead he bit his lips until he winced at the taste of blood.
He didn't know how much time had passed, when there was a soft knock on the door.
"Leo? Are you still in there?"
Quickly he straightened up, desperately trying to hide the tear tracks on his cheeks and the small stains of blood and saliva on his sleeves from when he couldn't resist his urges to self sooth anymore.
He couldn't let Scaloni wait.
"Yeah, sorry coach… I wasn't feeling well…"
"Is it…?" Scaloni looked Leo's body up and down as if he wanted to tell him something with that. "I thought you chose to be on suppressants?"
Oh… He thought Leo was close to a heat.
"No, no, I mean yes I am on suppressants of course, no it's not my… you know…"
He thought Scaloni knew Leo didn't get heats… At least not like normal Omegas would. The doctors had probably explained it after he had presented, but his brain had been took overwhelmed with the agony he had just gone through.
– – 2005 – –
"Señor Messi, we did every test we could. We don't know if any future heat will be as bad as this one, but we can only assume."
Leo had just blearily stared at his father talking to the doctors. They had just poked and prodded him for almost an hour, taking blood, urine, slick and who-knows-what-else samples from him. It has been embarrassing, it had hurt and on top of all that his head was still swimming from the onslaught of new feelings.
"Our best guess is, that the GHD somehow interfered with the production of the Omega hormones." The doctor looked at a chart and sighed. "Almost all of them are significantly too low. We could try and supplement them like we did with the GHD, but there's no guarantee that would work. Omega hormones are a tricky thing."
Leo sank back into the "nest" in the corner of the room, pulling the hood of his hoodie over his eyes. He didn't want to go through having to stab himself in the leg again.
"We will try this until his second heat hits in about three months, maybe by then they have levelled out."
He could see his father nodding, then signing some papers before Jorge turned around to the heap in the corner that used to be his son.
"Come on, let's get you home, it will be alright."
"W-will I still be able to play football?" Leo whispered. He had never heard of an Omega in the sport, but then again he had never cared about the designations of the players until now.
"Of course, pequeño. Don't worry."
His father had carried him home, and three weeks later Leo have his official debut in Barcelona's first team.
The months passed, but Leo never got his second heat. Or rather he did. He suddenly collapsed in training, had to be rushed to the emergency room and had spend three days in bed with almost 40°C fever. His hormones now all over the place.
After that they put him on suppressants, because nobody wanted to risk a repeat of that.
– – 2019 – –
"Oh… are you feeling well enough to join the afternoon session? If not you need to go and see the doc."
Leo gritted his teeth. He didn't want to face anyone, but how could he explain that he didn't need a doctor, he was just not in the mood. Scaloni would kick him out immediately. The team would be disappointed and Argentina would hate him again…
"I'm alright… I'll be down in 5."
"You don't need to rush, it's okay."