(no subject)
title: not lost, just lonely. (part 1 of 2)
characters: steven gerrard/xabi alonso, fernando torres/sergio ramos, iker casillas, pepe reina, cesc fabregas, david villa, alvaro arbeloa, olalla dominguez, lara alvarez, jamie carragher, raul meireles, dirk kuyt.
rating: r.
disclaimer: i'm lying.
word count: 9,402.
notes: au. soo, this took me FOREVER bc i gave up at one point and then picked up like 5 mos later and so forgive me if it's choppy. which it is. also i had meant to make it more centralized towards the actual catering, but hahahaha i suck, so. I SPLIT THIS UP INTO TWO PARTS BC I REALLY HATE THIS AND I THOUGHT SPLITTING IT UP MIGHT HELP ME THINK THROUGH THE ENDING MORE OR SOMETHING.
character/job directory:
steven gerrard - catering manager
iker casillas - “captain”, kitchen supervisor/co-banquet captain
xabi alonso - convention service manager/co-banquet captain
sergio ramos - maitre d’/head waiter
pepe reina - head chef
david villa - sommelier/bartender
fernando torres - waiter
alvaro arbeloa - sous chef
cesc fabregas - line cook
job descriptions.
When Xabi wakes up, he has no idea where he is.
There is a man next to him; he’s quite naked. And so is Xabi. That is the only thought Xabi can manage to think of as he’s scrambling to get out of bed and get some damn clothes on. He paces the bathroom for ten minutes, simply walking back and forth as he attempts to conjure up thoughts of the previous night. Fuck, he thinks. Shit, he thinks. He opens the door ever so slowly and peeks out.
The man is still asleep. Xabi takes it as a good sign. He slips out of the bathroom and rummages for a notepad somewhere in that godforsaken room. When he finds a pencil along with one, he scribbles out a note. Had fun! Thanks! Bye!
He knows it looks quite ridiculous, but he figures the man doesn’t remember anything about last night as well.
Xabi’s buzzing when he gets into his car. He hums along with the love song on the radio, drums his fingers along the steering wheel, smiles at the pedestrians who don’t give him the time of day. He feels like a god of sorts.
It doesn’t matter if he still can’t remember his name, or how in the hell they ended up in bed. The fact is, he had sex last night. In the past hour, bits and pieces of the night before have surfaced to his brain, but the most dominant one is the man’s accent. The way he’d smiled at Xabi, like Xabi was the most important person in the room - in the world, for that matter. It had been four months since he was last in bed with someone else.
Four months.
He promises himself that he will stop thinking about it when he walks into work, Gerrard Catering.
“Why are you so happy?” It’s Villa who interrupts him, an eyebrow quirked.
“Uh,” Xabi clears his throat before raising his own condescending eyebrow back. “Is that a problem?”
Villa hears the tone in his voice and holds up his hands, backing off. “Uh - no - it’s just that the new boss is coming in today, and I thought you’d be - I don’t know - testy.” He says it a little pointedly, and Xabi can’t blame him - he wasn’t always like this.
Xabi ignores him, “Do you know where-”
“I’m right here,” it’s Sergio. He’s smirking. “You got Villa to stutter.”
Villa glares. “I did not fucking stutter,” he mutters under his breath and Xabi laughs.
Sergio raises an eyebrow. “Whoa. Something’s up. What’s up? You okay?” He leans forward, presses his hand to Xabi’s forehead. “You sick?”
Xabi glares and moves away from Sergio’s reach. “Fuck off,” before he stalks to his office - any remnants of a good mood are gone. He’d forgotten how annoying his friends were.
He’s just rested his eyes when Iker knocks on his door, not even bothering for Xabi to answer before coming in. Sergio is right behind him. He tuts Xabi, “Shouldn’t be sleeping at work, Xab.”
Xabi opens one eye. “I’m tired.”
“But what would the boss say if he saw you?” Iker’s grinning, which is a rare thing to see.
Xabi raises an eyebrow. “What’s going on?”
Iker shrugs for a moment before he lets a smirk play at his lips. “Heard you got fucked last night.”
Xabi blanches. “What?”
Iker grins. “I knew it.”
Sergio smiles crookedly at Xabi, like this news is simply the best he’s heard in ages. Like Xabi’s sex-life is really just that important to him. Much more important than his own.
Xabi glares. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A few moments later, he gives a defeated sigh. “I don’t even fucking remember how I got into his bed.”
The door bangs open and Fernando stumbles in, Pepe nearly toppling on top of him. They straighten up and Villa is the one who gets to walk in gracefully. He grins at them and Pepe glares. He turns to Xabi. “You had a fuck last night and didn’t tell me?!”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
“How did Sergio know?”
Xabi turns to Sergio. He narrows his eyes at him. “How did you know?”
Sergio looks a little uncomfortable, “So, you do remember the party last night?” He is saying it slowly, as if Xabi really needs it told to him like this to be able to understand. And of course Xabi remembers it, the Gerrards were expanding their catering service to the whole country now. Xabi had been expecting the promotion to catering manager that he’d been working for ever since Paul passed away a few months before, but instead Mr. Gerrard had put his other son in the position now that he needed more eyes in each location.
Xabi nods a little. “Yeah, yeah, Steven Gerrard,” he says spitefully.
Iker quips, “Steven Gerrard, who has never had a job a day in his life.”
Xabi follows suit. “Steven Gerrard, who doesn’t know how to use a keyboard.”
Sergio looks wearily between the two. They continue.
“Steven Gerrard, who only likes to party.”
Villa adds in, “Steven Gerrard, who is 27 and only likes to party.”
It’s Sergio this time, “Steven Gerrard, who fucked Xabi last night.”
“Steven Gerrard, who-” Xabi starts without really listening to exactly what Sergio has said, but once it sinks in, he stops. His eyes widen almost theatrically. “Liar.”
Everyone stills, but Iker bursts out in uncharacteristic laughter. Xabi turns to give him a look that is so lethal that Sergio thinks Iker is bound to shrink back - he doesn’t. Xabi turns his glare back to Sergio. “You fucking liar.”
Cesc walks in just then, stares at them all for a moment before walking back out. He decides he’d rather not know what all the commotion is about. Nope, he’s not going to deal with it.
“I’m not!” Sergio holds up his hands defensively.
Iker tries to keep a serious face. He turns to Xabi. “It’s okay,” he says, but he can’t help the chuckle that emits from him on the last syllable.
“You fuck, you’re lying,” Xabi repeats to Sergio, albeit defeatedly. “How do you know?”
Sergio smiles at him a bit encouragingly, which is odd in itself so Xabi ignores it. “You know how after everyone had left, you got really fucking drunk?” He doesn’t wait for Xabi to nod before continuing, “I saw you two leave together, smashed and horny.”
“How could you tell we were horny?” Xabi grimaces. He hates this.
Sergio smirks a little despite himself. “Oh, I could tell,” and he winks. Xabi glares even harder.
“I had sex with my boss’ son.”
Villa holds up a finger. “Correction: you had sex with your boss.”
Xabi has called a meeting. Everyone is already gathered, they’re merely just waiting for Xabi to continue. Everyone who works here only got here through the connections they had of each other. Sure, Fernando never knew Iker before he came here, but he knew Sergio and Sergio knew Iker who knew Xabi - and, well, the list goes on. It is quiet until Xabi speaks. “As you all know, Mr. Gerrard’s other son will be replacing Paul. He will be here tomorrow. Now, although he doesn’t know how it works around here, you have to be very courteous with him. We have to help him adapt to our work environment, and I don’t want to hear any complaints. He is your new boss, treat him as one.” He pauses for only a heartbeat before he’s going on again. “You will call him ‘Mr. Gerrard’, not ‘Steven’ or ‘Stevie’, but ‘Mr. Gerrard’.”
When he finishes, Pepe chuckles a bit. “You’re the one who-”
Xabi knows where this is going. He gives him a look that shuts him up. He continues before it can start, “I just don’t want any of you-” He’s directing it at the younger employees - the ones that are only here to make it through college - but tries to be discreet. “Calling him hombre or tío. For all he knows, you’re calling him a bastard. You have to remember that he’s not Paul, and we can’t just-”
He stops and everyone quiets a bit, knows that he was trying to say, we can’t just replace him as easily as his father did. We can’t.
A few moments pass before Villa clears his throat and turns to Pepe, “Hey, Patricia wanted me to ask if you and Yolanda wanted to come over on Friday.”
Sergio asks, “What about me?” He’s grinning a little.
Villa wags his finger, gives a short laugh. “No way am I letting any of you single men into my house again.”
“What if we bring a date?” Fernando smirks.
Pepe rolls his eyes. “When you finally ask Olalla out, I will personally throw you a fiesta.” He turns to Villa. “Count me in.”
Villa turns to Arbeloa. “You?”
“Yeah, Carlota would love to,” he says with a little grin directed at Sergio.
Sergio snorts a little. “Fuck you and your single-men-discrimination, Villa.”
“What’s up?” Sergio asks when he takes a seat next to Fernando in the lounge.
Fernando is staring off into space and seems to only be drawn back into reality when Sergio nudges him. “There is nothing wrong with Olalla. Nothing. At all.”
“Right?” Sergio’s confused.
“Right. I just can’t believe I’m sitting here next to you-”
“Hey,” Sergio warns, smirking as he opens his soda.
Fernando ignores Sergio and continues, “When I could be across the street, asking her out!” He lets out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t understand why I can’t just fucking do it already! I just,” he puts his head in his hands.
Sergio chuckles a little, amused. He kicks Fernando’s leg under the chair. “If this is about the Villa dinner,” he starts but Fernando interrupts him.
“It’s not, Sergio. Can we be serious for one minute of our lives?” He sounds exasperated and tired.
Sergio frowns. He leans forward and presses a hand to the side of Fernando’s head, rubbing at his temple. “You’ll be fine, Fernando. It’ll be fine.”
And Fernando believes him as usual.
The moment Stevie walks in, everyone stiffens. He can feel the change in the air and he stops, looks around at some of the (somewhat) familiar faces from the party the other night. He brings his hand up half-way and gives a little wave, a small smile fixed on his face. “Hello,” he says and he half turns to get a good look at everybody.
A bald headed man raises his hand and takes his precious time in giving a single wave back. “Hello,” he replies, and Stevie realizes that he’s mocking him.
He breaks into a grin and a few of the others chuckle. “I’m Steven, Steven Gerrard,” he walks over to shake his hand. “But you can call me Stevie.”
“Pepe,” he replies. “Head chef.”
Stevie nods. “Had you labeled as a bartender, but.”
“That’d be me,” Villa says, raising up his index finger in acknowledgment. “David Villa - I met you the other night, at the party.”
Stevie laughs good naturedly. “Sorry, mate, I was completely knackered that night. Can’t remember any faces, much less names.”
Everyone breaks into a grin at that, and Stevie looks confused. One of them speaks up. “Really? Nothing at all?” His grin is infectious, and even though Stevie has no idea what’s going on, he smiles back.
“Nope? And you are?”
“Sergio Ramos, maitre d’.”
Stevie nods, pretends he knows what that means. “Cool.”
A younger boy smirks. “It’s just a fancy way of saying the head waiter, tío - er, sir. Sergio likes acting classier than he is by using French terms.” Sergio squeezes an arm around his neck, pulling at his ear. The boy pushes him off and holds out his hand to Stevie. “I’m Cesc - Francesc - but you can just call me Cesc.”
Pepe says, “He’s the line cook. My little baby.”
Cesc snorts a little, muttering under his breath and Stevie laughs. He turns to the last man. “You?”
“Álvaro Arbeloa, sous chef. It’s nice to meet you,” he smiles and he looks genuine.
Sergio says, “Fernando is the other waiter, but it’s his day off. So you’ll probably meet him tomorrow night at the engagement party we’re catering.”
“Okay,” Stevie says, not really caring too much. He’s relieved, really. “You lot are a lot less scary than I was picturing,” he starts when a man walks out of an office to the right, another right behind him. Stevie smiles at the first man, “Hey! Iker Casillas!” It is his first familiar face of the day, which is probably only because his father practically gushes about the Banquet Captain.
“Mr. Gerrard, how are you? How are you settling in into the new apartment?”
“Nicely,” Stevie replies. “And I told you to call me Stevie, stop with the formalities.”
“But-”
“But nothing, you called Paul by his a name basis, you should do the same with me.” Iker has nothing to say to that and he nods, but Stevie continues. “Weren’t there two of you? I mean, two of you ‘banquet captains’ or-”
He stops when he sees the man standing behind Iker, his face is crimson. Stevie looks at him for a long time before he remembers. “Fuck,” he mutters.
Xabi glares. “Yeah.”
Stevie rubs the back of his neck. “Uh,” he clears his throat. “Well, this is awkward.” He smiles a bit, in hopes of relieving the tension, but.
Xabi continues to glare.
Stevie sighs audibly and shrugs, saying, “I’m willing to keep this an utmost professional relationship.” Somewhere behind him, Sergio stifles a laugh. He turns around and sends him a glare. It shuts him up.
Xabi scoffs. “As opposed to what?”
“Xabi,” Iker warns and Stevie turns to him a little thankfully.
Xabi mutters, “Sorry, Mr. Gerrard. Is there anything you’ll need?”
“I’d like to talk to you and Iker alone for a bit, if that’d be alright with you.”
“So, tomorrow we have an event because the Domínguez family is having an engagement party - and their firm hires us for all their professional events, so this is important.”
Stevie nods, trying to keep up with all that Xabi and Iker have told him in the past hour. “So,” he starts and clears his throat. “What am I supposed to do?”
Xabi rolls his eyes, but Iker looks at him thoughtfully. “Xabi will help you with that.” When Stevie looks at him pleadingly, he smiles a little. “You’re responsible for organizing the events, and Xabi is your right-hand man in all that. So,” he says as he gets up, “You both need to get along.” It sounds like an order, and Stevie vaguely wonders what the point of being the ‘boss’ is when everyone else bosses you around.
When he leaves, Stevie meets Xabi’s eyes. “Well-”
“Listen, Mr. Gerrard,” he starts.
“Stevie,” Stevie corrects.
Xabi keeps going. “I don’t want you to go there tomorrow and fuck it up, this is really important to Fernando, he’s-” He wants to say, the girl who’s getting married, you see, Fernando’s in love with her sister. You cannot fuck it up for him, or I will fuck you up, and please, just. Behave. He simply says, “It’s important to him. So. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Stevie frowns. “I won’t,” he says indignantly. “I’ll meet this Fernando tomorrow, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Xabi sighs a little impatiently. He mutters, “Is there anything else?” and gets up to go.
Stevie says, “You know, you could’ve left a number. Fuck, even a name would’ve been nice.”
Xabi throws him a glare as he turns to the door, but he can’t help himself when he smiles as he walks out.
Stevie is excited as they make their way to set up at the engagement party. They had taken the two company vans, and he was riding with the chefs. Cesc is driving, his eyes trained on the road. He doesn’t partake in any of the banter going on, and Stevie admires that.
When they get there, everyone starts unloading things from the vans. Stevie wanders in through the back door, where he sees a tall man leaning against a wall, talking to a shorter woman. He sends a brilliant smile towards the pretty girl - a blonde, petite woman with nice sized breasts (he thinks) and an even nicer smile. She’s talking to a boy - er, man - with spiked blonde hair. He has a mohawk. This must be Fernando, he thinks.
As he walks up to them, he says, “I’m Steven Gerrard.”
The woman replies warmly, “Hello!” She holds out her hand. “Olalla.”
Stevie takes it, doesn’t let go immediately. He just smiles at her, tries to look deep into her eyes - or whatever it was that always worked like a charm for him. “Beautiful,” he says.
The mohawk boy clears his throat and thrusts his hand in Stevie’s direction. “Fernando Torres.”
Stevie grins as he raises an eyebrow. “How old are you?”
“22,” is the sharp reply and Stevie smirks.
“Nice,” he says before Sergio is beside him.
“You two have finally met!” He says, giving Fernando a look that says, smile. “Fernando, this is Steven Gerrard, our new boss.”
Fernando nods a little, and he sends a look right back to Sergio - one that says, did you see how he was looking at Olalla? (To others, it is admirable how well they can read each other.) Fernando clears his throat after a silent eye war with Sergio, smiling at Stevie. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”
Sergio tugs Stevie away and Fernando turns back to Olalla, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s alright,” her smile is earnest and enamored. It makes Fernando’s palms sweat. She looks at him expectantly, and Fernando thinks, maybe this is my moment - I need to ask her now -
But Stevie’s back, slapping a hand on Fernando’s back. “So, I hate to play the ‘boss’ role, but I think you should really get to work.”
Iker is by his side in a moment’s notice. “Uh,” he says quietly. He’s always so quiet, Iker, that Fernando wishes sometimes he’d yell. Yell at Stevie for ruining his moment, for the love of god. He looks at Iker helplessly, and Iker sighs. He pulls at Stevie’s arm, “We need you over there, Stevie.”
But the moment’s lost, and Olalla turns to them and says, “No, no, I should probably go anyway. My sister needs me.” She glances at Fernando before she walks away. “Bye,” she whispers.
Fernando watches her go before turning to Stevie, growling, “Fucker,” and walking away.
Stevie look alarmed, surprised, unsure. “What was that about?”
Iker just shakes his head a bit. Then he too leaves Stevie all alone, standing there like some sort of idiot.
Xabi passes him with a box of utensils. “You could help out, you know.”
Stevie glares.
Sergio pulls at Fernando’s arm, laughing a little. “Oh, come on, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
“Stevie fucking embarrassed me. It was like - I was like - too lazy to do my own job.”
Sergio says, “Fernando, she likes you. Stop being an idiot.”
“It’s just,” he sighs, exasperated. “I haven’t had sex in ages.”
“Yeah, well, me neither - and you don’t see me moping about it,” Sergio snorts.
Villa leans over the counter, “Yes, you do. All the time.”
“More than-” Pepe starts, but Sergio interrupts him with a loud laugh.
“Okay, okay, I get it. But you guys are married, so I don’t think you even have a say in any of this.” He’s smiling from ear to ear and Pepe hands him a tray.
“Just go out there and serve.”
Stevie and Xabi are the only ones in the office one day. Stevie turns to him. “So,” he starts, and falters when Xabi actually turns to look at him.
Xabi asks, “Yes?”
“Um,” he starts. “How many of the guys are single?”
Xabi actually smiles a little at that. Stevie can tell that he thinks he’s a worthless, idiotic, lazy guy, but he can also tell that he likes him. Maybe. Xabi answers, “Most are actually not. The only single ones are Fernando and Sergio.”
“And you,” Stevie adds with a smirk. He’s not sure if he’s flirting. He’s never sure of what he’s doing when he’s with Xabi.
Xabi rolls his eyes. He’s not quite friendly with Stevie, but he’s not malicious either. Anymore. “Yes.”
“And they’re all - straight?”
“Yeah,” Xabi says quietly, turning back to his paperwork.
“Even Sergio?” Stevie asks, because that can’t be possible.
Xabi laughs at that. “Well, let’s just say he loves everyone.”
“Me too,” Stevie grins.
Xabi rolls his eyes.
Xabi walks in on Stevie playing minesweeper on his computer. He glares at him. “You’re supposed to be replying to clients.”
“And say what?”
Xabi glares. He walks out of the room and Stevie stares helplessly at the door. “Xabi!” he calls, “Come back!”
Pepe leans into his doorway. “You’ve got to try harder than that, Stevie,” he winks.
Fernando is over at Sergio’s place, when he breaks the silence. He’s lounging on Sergio’s couch, his legs dangling off the side. “So,” he starts. “I think we should fuck.”
Sergio looks over. His face is a mixture of incredulous and curious. “What?”
“Yeah,” he says, sitting up so he is in a normal position again. “I mean, neither of us is dating anyone and both of us are horny.”
Sergio rolls his eyes. “Fernando, don’t be an idiot.”
Fernando frowns a little. “I don’t see any negative to this. We fuck and that’s it. It’s the best kind of sex there is.”
Sergio thinks about it.
They end up fucking.
Stevie says, “Xabi, I need help.”
“With what?” He says, peering over Stevie’s shoulder to the computer screen. “Who’s the client?”
Stevie shrugs. “Not sure.”
Xabi grumbles something under his breath, leans over to type something. “You have to-”
“What?” Stevie says and Xabi actually looks pained, like helping Stevie with this is bothering him. He has to stretch his entire torso over the desk. He is clearly uncomfortable. Stevie doesn’t move his chair out of Xabi’s way. He reasons, I’m not trying to be an asshole, I just am.
“You’re what?” Xabi asks, and he’s fuming.
Sergio shrugs, embarrassed. “It’s nothing serious, Xabi.”
“He’s in love with Olalla.”
“He’s the one that fucking suggested it,” Sergio spits back.
Iker just leans back on Xabi’s desk and shakes his head. “This isn’t a good idea, Serg.”
“It’s not a bad one either.”
Xabi sighs. “Fine, but don’t run to us when something gets fucked up along the way.”
“He’s my best friend, nothing’s going to get ‘fucked up’, don’t worry.”
He’s grinning when he leaves.
Stevie calls Xabi into his office sometimes for ‘help’. What he really does is let Xabi take over while he gets to watch. Watch him, watch him work, just - watch. He’s embarrassed to admit how much he enjoys Xabi’s company, especially since Xabi isn’t too fond of him. He wants to tell him, you look good in the color green. And red. And blue. He wants to tell him, I like your smile. It makes me happy, makes me forget that my brother passed away some months ago, that my father doesn’t love me as much as him and never will - not even now that he’s gone. He wants to tell him, I still think about that night. I wish I could remember it.
It’s rather embarrassing, because he’s never thought about someone for more than a few days.
He slides in beside Xabi in the supply room. Xabi’s checking off a list of things they need that night, and Stevie rests his hand on Xabi’s midback - like it’s completely natural for Stevie to having his hands on Xabi. Xabi turns to give him an incredulous look, and when he realizes the touching isn’t a prelude to some sort of conversation, he moves away from his touch.
Stevie doesn’t let it faze him. “I can make a mean fettuccine alfredo, you know.”
“Yeah, I-” he starts and then stops. “Is that an offer?” Xabi asks. He looks skeptical. And mildly surprised. And, if Stevie’s quite honest, uninterested. Shit.
“Um, well. Yes.” Stevie shifts from his right foot to his left.
Xabi snorts a little. “You’re crazy,” he mutters before leaving.
Stevie takes it a lot harder than he was expecting. He goes out to a bar that night, gets drunk, and takes home a Spanish lad that isn’t Xabi.
One night, Fernando sits up afterwards and says, “I think we should make a list.”
“A list?” Sergio rubs at his eyes. He was trying to sleep.
“A list of our rules.”
Sergio laughs, sitting up. “Alright, we should write this down.” He reaches over to his bedside table, grabs a notepad and a pen after rummaging around for it.
“Number one,” Fernando starts. He moves so he’s pressed up against Sergio’s side, draping a lazy arm against his waist. “It’s all about the sex.”
Sergio nods, writing it down. “Number two, no sleepovers.”
“Or cuddling.”
“Then we should probably-” Sergio gestures between the two of them.
Fernando nods, realizing as he pushes himself away. “Good. And no holding hands.”
“Or roses.”
“Or expensive dinners.”
Fernando scrunches his nose, nodding. “Basically, none of that relationship stuff.”
“No calling just to say hello, or to hear my beautiful voice,” Sergio starts to write it down, a smirk at his lips, when Fernando stops him.
“That’s not fair, I call you all the fucking time and it’s not because I want to ‘hear your beautiful voice’.” A pause, and then he adds, “No getting jealous.”
“Right,” Sergio says, noting it on the pad. “And if we happen to start dating someone else, we’re only allowed to fuck a max of three times.”
Fernando starts to laugh at that. “We shouldn’t even be fucking in the first place.”
“Just in case,” Sergio smirks.
Fernando takes the notepad from him, gives it a one-over. “Alright, now that that’s set,” he says, getting up and putting the notepad on the bedside table.
Sergio watches him almost hungrily. When Fernando crawls back to the bed, Sergio pulls at his hand until Fernando is straddling him. Fernando leans down and kisses along his jaw, slowly - almost tantalizingly so. Sergio thinks he’d be willing to stay like this forever, really.
Stevie walks into the banquet hall feeling happy. It is probably because Xabi actually smiled at him today.
He heads to where Xabi is standing, speaking with the organizer of the event. The man turns to Stevie. “Mr. Gerrard, thank you so much for participating with us. You’ve done an excellent job in organizing this, I hope it all pays off in the end.”
Stevie smiles. He doesn’t say ‘thank you’, because he and Xabi both know who deserves the praise. When the man leaves, Xabi turns to him. He wants to say, you could’ve corrected him. You could’ve told him who sits on his ass all day while the other works his off. Instead, he sighs a little. “Let’s go.” He looks disappointed. Stevie’s stomach drops.
“Alright,” he mutters as he follows him. Sergio and Fernando are speaking rather closely just inside the door of the kitchen. Sergio says something and Fernando laughs, Stevie thinks he’s got him eating off his every word. He wishes he could do that, debates asking Sergio for advice.
Iker is helping Pepe get everything in place, Álvaro has already started on the main dishes and Cesc is finishing off the appetizers. Villa must be outside, situated at the bar, Stevie thinks. He debates going out there with him, because Xabi isn’t even talking to him. He knows he shouldn’t, it isn’t even in his job description.
But then Iker is by his side. “Do you mind taking over for me out there? I’m going to help Pepe out in here.”
Xabi frowns. “Stevie doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to do.”
“It’s not that hard, Xabi. Besides, he has you,” Iker starts. He motions to Stevie’s suit, “Besides, he’s dressed for the part already.”
Stevie gets to stand beside Xabi the whole night, making sure everything is going according to plan. Nothing goes wrong, nothing ever goes wrong, so mostly they just walk around and make sure everything is in check. Xabi actually smiles at him when they hear everyone discuss how delicious the food is.
Stevie thinks Iker must be insane to give this up, even for just a day.
They pretend like nothing is happening between them. Fernando insists it was a part of their set of rules and so they don’t acknowledge any of it.
Sergio doesn’t realize he hates it until it hits him that Fernando’s been pretending that it doesn’t even happen. If Sergio mentions something about ‘the other night’, Fernando crinkles his nose, like, “What?” All confusion and doubt.
Fernando is at the groceries when he sees her. She’s in the produce section, mulling over which watermelon to buy. He walks up to her and smiles so earnestly that it hurts his cheeks a little. “Hey, how are you?” he says in a rush.
She looks surprised to see him, but glad. “Fernando!” She presses a kiss to his cheek, Fernando smiles harder. “I’m good, and you?”
“Great, actually. Been busy with work.” He looks down at her. “I’ve missed you.”
It’s a dumb thing to say since they rarely talk, but it makes her blush and he thinks of it as a good thing. She mumbles, “Me too. I wish we saw each other more often.”
“Yeah,” and then, “We should have dinner sometime.”
After she says yes, he forgets about his groceries and heads straight to work. The moment he enters, he bounds over to Pepe and wraps his arms tightly around him. “What was that for?”
Fernando smirks, pulling away. “She said yes.”
“What?” It’s Álvaro; he’s putting away a few of his things.
“Olalla. She said yes.”
Stevie smiles, “Congratulations.”
Villa gapes. “No fucking way - you actually asked her?! You?”
Fernando punches his arm. “Fucker.” He looks around. “Where are the others?”
Just then, Xabi’s office opens and he and Sergio come out, laughing about something or the other. Stevie sighs a little inaudibly, Xabi never laughs with him. It’s not fair. None of it is fair.
Sergio’s eyes brighten when he sees Fernando. “Hey, what are you-”
But Fernando doesn’t let him finish, “I asked Olalla out and she said yes.” He says it quickly, all in one breath, like if he doesn’t get it out now, he never will.
Sergio’s smile falters, but only momentarily. No one notices, really. No one except Xabi. And Iker. And Stevie. And Villa. And - everyone except Fernando. He bounds over to him, jumping up and down a little bit on the balls of his feet. “Fucking finally. How long did it take you again? 3 years?”
Fernando takes Olalla to a nice little restaurant. They talk about politics, music, movies. She even partakes in a bit of football banter. Fernando thinks she’s perfect. He texts Sergio about it, when she’s in the bathroom. The reply he gets is: sounds like you’ve found yr match :-) x. It makes Fernando frown and he doesn’t know why.
When she comes back, their food has made it to the table. “Finally,” he breathes out and she looks surprised, as if he were talking about her.
“Um, sorry?”
Fernando’s eyes widen. “No, no, I meant the food.” She laughs and he says, “You could’ve taken as long as you liked, really. I’d have waited.”
“Really? How long?” Her eyes are shining.
She looks beautiful. Happy.
He says, “Forever,” and means it.
Stevie says, “You look really good today,” and Xabi raises an eyebrow.
“What?”
“I mean, you look good every day.”
Xabi looks unimpressed.
Villa grins openly. He nudges Iker, who is doing some paperwork. When he looks up and sees the look Stevie’s giving Xabi, the corners of his lips turn upward. Villa whispers, “Five bucks says they’ll be fucking in a month.”
“You must not know Xabi,” Iker snorts. “You’re on.”
“Does this count? As one of our three times?”
Fernando looks at him, amused. “Nah. We’re not officially ‘together’ yet, so no. Rules didn’t say anything about when we started dating, right?”
Neither of them can remember. Or maybe they pretend not to.
Sergio drapes his leg over Fernando’s, leans over and presses a kiss to his shoulder, his neck, his cheek. It’s almost adoring, his actions, but neither of them are willing to think about that so they get rid of their clothes and Sergio fucks Fernando like he’s not in love with him, like this is No Big Deal.
Stevie wishes it was his day off. He had started the day well enough, complimenting Xabi as usual, only to be yelled at in return.
“This is getting really fucking annoying,” Stevie spits after Xabi gives him a long lecture on exactly what Stevie has done wrong with his paperwork.
“It’s your own fault,” he glowers right back.
“I’m the fucking boss, Xabi. Don’t forget who you’re talking to.” It’s the first time Stevie has used the ‘boss’ card, but he’s just really fucking annoyed and really fucking tired.
“Well,” Xabi starts. “Maybe if you acted more like your brother-”
And that’s the last straw, really. “Get out,” Stevie growls.
Xabi isn’t sure what to say, his eyes widen. He’s seen Stevie get angry, but not like this. Not when he’s so angry that he can barely speak, not when he looks sad on top of it. “I,” he says.
“I don’t want to hear it. You don’t know anything about me and my brother, so I just don’t want to fucking hear it. Get out.”
Fernando tuts him when he walks out. He rubs a hand to his face and goes to his office.
He goes to apologize. Stevie is staring out the window. His mouth is downcast, something not often seen on the Englishman. “I’m sorry,” he clears his throat. “Are you okay?”
Stevie doesn’t look at him. “When I was younger, I wanted to be a footballer.”
Xabi waits for him to continue, and when it doesn’t come, he supplies, “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he replies softly. “Paul did too, but I was better. My dad - he wanted one of us to follow him in this-” He gestures around the building. “He picked Paul,” he shrugs. “He thought I had more of a chance of making it big, so he made Paul stop. Made him focus on his studies, and he excelled in that, you know?”
Xabi shrugs.
Stevie continues. “My dad loved him so much; he was the one that would take on the family business. He was the good son.”
Xabi is frowning. “What happened to football?”
Stevie sighs a little, shifts in his seat so he’s finally facing Xabi. He meets his eyes. “One day, after Paul had graduated with a master’s, and I was one signature away from signing with Liverpool - ” He gives a breathless little laugh, like suddenly he is just so exhausted. “It was an accident, he just - we swerved. The car fucking swerved.” He scoffs a little, and Xabi notices that his eyes are red.
“I’m sorry,” Xabi says quietly and he’s sincere, Stevie can feel it.
Stevie shrugs a little. The way he’s looking at Xabi, it’s just. “I ruined his dreams - he ruined mine.”
Sergio texts Fernando, calls him, does everything to try to get a hold of him. It is nearly impossible, what with Olalla now in the picture. The only times they see each other are at the banquets, and they’re both so busy then.
Fernando is out of breath, laughing as he brings back his empty tray into kitchen. He hands it to Cesc to refill. “They’re like animals out there.”
Sergio gets back in a few minutes after, just as Cesc finishes refilling the tray. “Pepe, they’re asking about the main course, tío.”
He rests his arm on Fernando’s shoulder, and Fernando leans into the touch. He moves his hand to rub at the back of Fernando’s neck and smiles at him. “Tired?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe, man,” he sighs, groaning a little when Cesc gives him another tray. Without a second glance, he’s gone, and Sergio’s turning in his place to watch him go.
When he turns back to the chefs, they’re all watching him. Iker looks concerned. He says, “Sergio,” and Sergio only shakes his head.
“Don’t give me any bullshit, Iker. Nothing is up.”
“You sure about that?” The concern in his voice is killing Sergio.
“Fuck you, he’s my best friend. I can’t be happy to see my best friend?”
Xabi stays late at the office one night. No one else is left, and he really should be heading home, but. He’s in the storage room making a last minute check to make sure they have all the supplies for the charity event they’re catering tomorrow.
When he finishes, he goes to drop off his papers in Stevie’s office. It’s a mess. He cleans up, just a little bit so that at least the wood on the desk can be seen. He puts the pencils and pens back in place, puts the paper clips in a drawer, hopes Stevie will like what he’s ‘done with the place’ in the morning. Doubts he’d even notice, but, well.
Stevie wakes up sweating one night. He doesn’t realize why until he remembers -
he dreamt of Xabi. Of the curve of his back, the way he smelled when they fell asleep, his smile when he was drunk.
Shit.
The first time Fernando and Olalla kissed, Fernando swears he saw fireworks. “You know, like in the movies?”
Villa tries to hold in a snort. He tries. “Fernando. I’m telling you right now that nothing is like what they show in the movies.”
“I swear, Villa, it was.”
Sergio chuckles lightly. “I’m sure you saw daisies and lights and fireworks, Fer.”
Fernando just smiles, stares off into space dreamily. He’s doodling something onto the form he’s supposed to be filling out. Probably hearts or some shit.
Sergio watches him. Villa notices and nudges him, says, “Help me out with this load?”
Iker’s girlfriend has a party for getting a promotion for her job. Instead of catering it, they’re all invited. Fernando brings Olalla, grins at everyone as he shows her off. When he spots Sergio, he almost forgets about his girlfriend for a second before taking her hand and leading her to him. Sergio hugs him, and it feels like they haven’t seen each other in forever, when it has really only been a few days.
When Sergio pulls back, he takes the hand of the girl behind him before turning back to Fernando and Olalla. “This is Lara.”
She is tall, brunette, and gorgeous. Fernando feels something churn in the pit of his stomach. He can’t quite place it.
But it spreads to his chest when Sergio tightens his arm around her waist. Fernando smiles politely at her, and Olalla gushes. The two hit it off. Sergio smiles proudly at Lara and Fernando says quietly, “You didn’t tell me about her.”
Sergio turns to look at him coolly. “Yeah, well, you were busy, Fer.”
“Sergio,” he frowns.
“What?”
Fernando stares at him hard for a moment. He forces a smile. “I like her.”
“Good. Because I do too.”
Xabi arrives a bit late to the party. He was busy in the office, had forgotten to check the time. It could happen to anyone - but always to Xabi. He gets there with a bottle of champagne for Sara, chats amiably with her for a few moments before he sees Stevie. There are three girls surrounding him, fucking giggling at every word he utters.
He walks over, plasters on a smile. “Hello, Stevie.”
Stevie’s eyes widen slightly. “Xabi!” He watches him for a few seconds before he remembers the girls. “This is Lizzie, Jessica, and - ” He scrunches up his nose. Xabi knows he’s trying to remember her name. When he fails to, he says, “this one’s my favorite.”
Xabi snorts. Stevie grins a little wryly. One of them, Lizzie, Xabi thinks, says, “We’re American,” in a bad accent.
“Right,” Xabi nods, unimpressed. He turns back to Stevie, “I guess I’ll be seeing you.”
Later, he sees Stevie and Lizzie sneak off upstairs. It makes his blood boil.
Stevie wakes up at 3 pm the next day surrounded by three American girls. He stares at his watch a few minutes, willing it to turn back time. Willing it to prove to him that it’s lying.
He sneaks out before they wake up, gets to work with what he was wearing the night before.
Xabi is livid. “We have a fucking baptism to cater and you smell like beer.”
“I’ll just have a quick change - ”
Xabi presses his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “There’s no time, we have to go to set up now.”
Stevie lets out a huff of air. “This isn’t really your decision to make, Xabi.”
He gets up and stalks off to his office. Slams the door behind him.
There is a tailored suit hanging off his chair.
Sergio has a plate of Pepe’s best quiche, and everyone is glued to him. Villa passes by him once on his way to the kitchen and grabs one. Sergio wants to kick him.
“What? I’m helping you. If you finish your plate, you can go back to the kitchen. The faster they finish…”
“That’s stupid.”
“What’s up your ass?” He hasn’t got much to do, since no one seems to want to get drunk at a baptism.
“I’m just tired,” which is the truth.
Villa looks momentarily concerned. Villa never looks concerned. Sergio turns away, walks around with his quiche for a bit before heading back to the kitchen.
“Haven’t hung out together in a while.” Fernando is refilling his plate.
Sergio glances at him as he sets his own down. “You wanna?”
Fernando stays at Sergio’s that night. They’re watching football highlights from the week when it happens. Fernando’s hand finds itself on Sergio’s thigh. He glances at him.
Fernando smiles a little. He looks oddly embarrassed, or bashful, even. “First time out of our three, right?”
At first, Sergio wants to say, well, I’m not too comfortable with this. Instead, he says, “Alright,” and moves slowly until he is straddling him, pushing him down on the couch. He looks down at him, and it feels loaded - the way his eyes rake over Fernando, the way he pushes his hands into his hair as he kisses him. The way he pulls off his shirt, like his life depends on it - on this. The way he presses kisses to his jaw, his neck, down his chest.
Stevie’s father comes to visit once. Stevie’s on edge, absolutely driven mad by the time the day arrives. He fixes his tie three times, until finally he pulls it off - stamps it onto the ground.
At first, Xabi debates pretending he hasn’t heard him. He taps his fingers along his desk for a moment before standing up and making his way to Stevie’s office. He doesn’t knock, walks straight in and picks up his tie off the floor. He straightens it out and looks at Stevie. “You okay, Boss?”
“Don’t call me that,” Stevie says, voice quiet.
“What do you need?” His voice is quiet, and somehow - it’s sincere.
“I just,” he sighs. “My fucking tie, Xabi. It’s fucking doing my head in.”
Xabi’s mouth twitches. He tries not to smile. “Your tie?”
Stevie nods, and he looks about five years old. “Fucking hell.”
Xabi moves forward, wraps the tie around his neck and begins to tie it. “You’re going to be fine, Gerrard.”
“He hates me, you know. You should be careful to not let it tarnish how much he loves you guys.”
“He doesn’t,” Xabi says. He looks up at the ceiling for a moment, in a way Stevie knows means that he feels uncomfortable.
Stevie looks at him and says, “Thanks,” and then, “I like your suit,” which he hopes Xabi will take as, I like you.
Mr. Gerrard arrives approximately at 12:15 pm.
He’s greeted by Iker, who leads him into the building. He introduces him to everyone while Stevie and Xabi stand back. Xabi looks at Stevie and gives him a look that says, you should be doing that, and Stevie replies with one that says, fuck off.
Neither of them can remember when they reached the point that they could understand each other’s facial expressions. Stevie wants to laugh, but then his father is in his face.
“Steven, how are you?” He asks, holding out his hand.
Stevie stares at it. The back of his eyes sting. The last time he saw his father was at his brother’s funeral, and the first thing he says to him is how are you and a handshake? Cool. He looks up and sees Xabi’s eyes are on him. Everyone’s are, for that matter. But Xabi’s -
Stevie takes his father’s hand. “Good, thanks. And you?”
“Great, lad.” He eyes Stevie up and down, pats his back in approval. Xabi smiles a little.
Xabi says, “Hello, sir,” with a polite smile.
“Xabi!” He beams. He likes Xabi. He remembers Xabi. “I hear many good things about you, Xabi. You seem to be doing all the work around here, eh? I doubt my son’s been too much of a help.” The way he says it - it sounds like he’s apologizing. Like he’s saying, I’m sorry I put this burden on you.
But Xabi doesn’t even miss a beat. “Actually, Stevie does so much, sir. He basically runs this place. Iker and I have had a much lighter workload since he’s come on board.”
Mr. Gerrard raises an eyebrow, like, really?
Xabi continues, “He’s a great leader, and a pleasure to be around, sir. I can’t imagine how tough the last few months would have been without him.”
Stevie’s mouth is comically open. Iker nudges him to close it before his father sees. Stevie - he gives a look to Xabi that says, thank you. Xabi smiles in reply and Stevie is suddenly hit with this inexplicable desire to hug him. To just crush him in his arms.
Fernando fucks Olalla on a Tuesday night. She’s all curves and soft skin. She’s pale, but with the right light, she looks incredibly beautiful. Fernando thinks that if he weren’t in love before, he surely must be now.
At work, Villa watches him like a hawk for the first few hours. Finally, he smirks. “You had sex last night.”
Sergio’s head snaps up, and for a moment, he’s confused. But then it hits him and his eyes widen. It takes a moment before Fernando sees him smile. He shakes his head as he claps Fernando’s back. “Finally?”
“Finally,” Fernando reaffirms, but it feels wrong and he doesn’t know why.
On Mr. Gerrard’s last day visiting, he says to Stevie, “I know Xabi was lying.”
“What?”
“I know you, Stevie, and he certainly wasn’t talking about you.”
Stevie burns red. “I didn’t tell him to.”
Mr. Gerrard shakes his head and sighs. “I miss Paul.”
Stevie turns away. “Me too,” he mutters.
His father doesn’t look at him. “Sometimes I wish, I wish you-”
“I get it, dad,” Stevie says sharply before getting up and leaving. He doesn’t know what he wanted to say, but he sure can imagine. I wish you were him. He didn’t have to say it for Stevie to know.
He stays late in his office that night. Xabi knocks around midnight and asks, “Aren’t you going home?”
Stevie doesn’t look at him. He says, “Don’t know, mate.”
Xabi’s eyebrows furrow. He walks to him. He touches his arm and moves closer. Stevie can feel his breath on his shoulder. “What do you need?” He asks, voice quiet. It’s the same question as before, but it means more this time.
Stevie isn’t sure how to do this. He’s not sure how to ask. Instead, he takes Xabi’s hand and pulls him down, presses their lips together softly. It takes a moment or two before what’s happening catches up to them. Xabi deepens the kiss and Stevie gets out of his seat, pressing Xabi against his desk. He pulls away, panting, and for a moment - they both wonder if this is the right thing to do. It barely registers in their brains before Stevie pushes some papers out of the way and Xabi lifts himself onto the desk. Stevie settles in between his legs, kisses his neck.
Xabi concentrates on breathing in and out.
Stevie wakes up first this time. He thinks, shit, bugger, fuck. He looks around his office. It’s an absolute mess. Papers are on the floor; his coat is thrown over his chair; he can’t find one of his shoes.
Shit, bugger, fuck. Fucking shit, fucking fuck, fuck, fuck.
He looks at the time. Iker will be in in about half an hour. He looks around for his pants and pulls them on when he finds them under his desk. He needs to get home and shower. He debates waking up Xabi, but when he looks down at him - he just looks so peaceful.
He leaves without a note. Xabi wakes up and once he remembers the night before - something deep inside his ribcage starts to ache in an unfamiliar way. He presses the heel of his hand into his left eye for a moment before he gets up and walks to his car.
When Stevie gets back to the office, Xabi is gone. Xabi doesn’t show up to work that day.
Iker stops Fernando on his way out. He looks at Fernando long and hard before he even opens his mouth.
And then he shuts it.
He glances at Sergio and then back to Fernando, a disappointed look in his eyes, and Fernando suddenly knows what this is all about.
Later, he goes over to Sergio’s.
“What are you doing here?” Sergio is surprised, but happy. He pulls Fernando into his apartment, slaps his back. “Missed you, bro.”
It’s only been a week since their last time. Fernando says, “You know, we don’t have to.”
Sergio’s eyebrows knit together. He’s confused. Fernando thinks about how he hates it when he’s confused, how he wishes he could keep Sergio from ever being confused again. He wants to punch himself. Sergio asks, “What?”
“Fuck. I mean, we don’t have to fuck.”
“This would only be our second time, though.”
“I just - I feel like an asshole about all this, you know? I feel like I’m forcing you to.”
“You’re not, Fer. There are two of us here, you know.” His eyes are soft.
“I still feel like a selfish bastard, Serg,” he breathes out a laugh.
Sergio touches his face lightly. “Fernando.”
Fernando says, “Yeah, I know. I mean - I’m not under some allusion that you’re helplessly in love with me or something. I’m not that self-absorbed.” He’s joking. Of course he’s joking. His eyes are twinkling with a held in smirk.
Sergio forces on a smile. “Exactly.”
Xabi comes into work the next day. He knows it’s irrational to think they all know, but he still reddens as he walks past them and into his office.
Stevie walks in behind him. “Listen,” he starts but Xabi doesn’t let him finish.
“Please, don’t.” He’s not meeting his eyes. “I did you a favor the other night - because you’re my boss and I respected your brother. Can we just - pretend it didn’t happen now?”
Stevie’s face - it’s a mixture of emotions that Xabi has never seen on him before. Something inside Xabi jostles, maybe. He almost takes it back. Almost. Stevie shakes his head and says in an unfamiliar voice, “No.”
“Stevie.”
“You’re lying and we both know it. I know you feel something for me.”
Xabi looks away. It only confirms it. He says, voice soft, “Please, don’t.”
Stevie touches his face gingerly. He traces down from the tip of his eyebrow to his jaw with his thumb. “What are you afraid of?”
Xabi still won’t meet his eyes. “I don’t -” He stops and finally looks at him. “I don’t do the whole relationship thing.”
Stevie snorts. “Come on. I’m not going to hurt you, Xabi.”
Xabi shakes his head, looking away again. “But I’m going to hurt you, Stevie.”
If eyes could frown, Stevie’s do just that when he hears him. “Xabi,” he pulls his face so that he’s looking at him.
Xabi continues, and his voice has fallen an octave. “I don’t fall in love, Stevie. I’m incapable of it. And you’re - you’re so -” His eyes are soft. He looks as much in love as anybody could be, but. But Xabi doesn’t fall in love. Ever.
“I still want to try.”
Xabi’s frown deepens. “But. You’re going to get hurt, Stevie.”
Stevie - he looks down at the ground and shuffles his legs a bit. His eyebrows are furrowed and his mouth is set in a firm line. When he speaks, his eyes are downcast. “You don’t have to worry about that,” and smiles a bit when he looks up at Xabi. He takes Xabi’s hand and leads him to the desk.
When he strips Xabi of his clothes, his stomach drops. Maybe Xabi should worry, after all.
“I’m fucked.” Sergio puts his head in his hands and groans.
Cesc puts his hand on his back and rubs, unsure but sympathetic. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“I need - fuck, where the fuck is Xabi? I need to fucking talk to Xabi.” His face is still in his hands.
Cesc is concerned. “Should I - get him? He’s been in his office since this morning.”
“No. I tried talking to him earlier. He needs to be alone for a bit.” He turns to look at Cesc, finally. “Does Stevie know he came in already?”
“I think so,” he says with a shrug. “He was in there earlier. For like, 5 hours.”
Sergio sits up. His forehead wrinkles for a moment before he gets up and walks to Xabi’s office. For a moment, he debates knocking. “Xabi?” he opens the door slowly. Xabi’s turned to the back wall. Sergio walks to him. “What’s up?”
Xabi shakes his head. “I’m in a bad mood, Sergio. Just don’t-”
“What happened?”
Xabi shakes his head, quick and fluid. “Nothing.”
“Xabi.”
Xabi meets his eyes. He doesn't say anything.
Sergio exhales slowly. “I’m in love with Fernando,” he offers.
Xabi’s frown deepens considerably. He reaches forward and touches his arm. “Stevie and I doing the whole - dating - thing.” A pause. “We’re both fucked, aren’t we?”
“Yeah,” a breath of laughter and then silence.
part 2.
characters: steven gerrard/xabi alonso, fernando torres/sergio ramos, iker casillas, pepe reina, cesc fabregas, david villa, alvaro arbeloa, olalla dominguez, lara alvarez, jamie carragher, raul meireles, dirk kuyt.
rating: r.
disclaimer: i'm lying.
word count: 9,402.
notes: au. soo, this took me FOREVER bc i gave up at one point and then picked up like 5 mos later and so forgive me if it's choppy. which it is. also i had meant to make it more centralized towards the actual catering, but hahahaha i suck, so. I SPLIT THIS UP INTO TWO PARTS BC I REALLY HATE THIS AND I THOUGHT SPLITTING IT UP MIGHT HELP ME THINK THROUGH THE ENDING MORE OR SOMETHING.
character/job directory:
steven gerrard - catering manager
iker casillas - “captain”, kitchen supervisor/co-banquet captain
xabi alonso - convention service manager/co-banquet captain
sergio ramos - maitre d’/head waiter
pepe reina - head chef
david villa - sommelier/bartender
fernando torres - waiter
alvaro arbeloa - sous chef
cesc fabregas - line cook
job descriptions.
When Xabi wakes up, he has no idea where he is.
There is a man next to him; he’s quite naked. And so is Xabi. That is the only thought Xabi can manage to think of as he’s scrambling to get out of bed and get some damn clothes on. He paces the bathroom for ten minutes, simply walking back and forth as he attempts to conjure up thoughts of the previous night. Fuck, he thinks. Shit, he thinks. He opens the door ever so slowly and peeks out.
The man is still asleep. Xabi takes it as a good sign. He slips out of the bathroom and rummages for a notepad somewhere in that godforsaken room. When he finds a pencil along with one, he scribbles out a note. Had fun! Thanks! Bye!
He knows it looks quite ridiculous, but he figures the man doesn’t remember anything about last night as well.
Xabi’s buzzing when he gets into his car. He hums along with the love song on the radio, drums his fingers along the steering wheel, smiles at the pedestrians who don’t give him the time of day. He feels like a god of sorts.
It doesn’t matter if he still can’t remember his name, or how in the hell they ended up in bed. The fact is, he had sex last night. In the past hour, bits and pieces of the night before have surfaced to his brain, but the most dominant one is the man’s accent. The way he’d smiled at Xabi, like Xabi was the most important person in the room - in the world, for that matter. It had been four months since he was last in bed with someone else.
Four months.
He promises himself that he will stop thinking about it when he walks into work, Gerrard Catering.
“Why are you so happy?” It’s Villa who interrupts him, an eyebrow quirked.
“Uh,” Xabi clears his throat before raising his own condescending eyebrow back. “Is that a problem?”
Villa hears the tone in his voice and holds up his hands, backing off. “Uh - no - it’s just that the new boss is coming in today, and I thought you’d be - I don’t know - testy.” He says it a little pointedly, and Xabi can’t blame him - he wasn’t always like this.
Xabi ignores him, “Do you know where-”
“I’m right here,” it’s Sergio. He’s smirking. “You got Villa to stutter.”
Villa glares. “I did not fucking stutter,” he mutters under his breath and Xabi laughs.
Sergio raises an eyebrow. “Whoa. Something’s up. What’s up? You okay?” He leans forward, presses his hand to Xabi’s forehead. “You sick?”
Xabi glares and moves away from Sergio’s reach. “Fuck off,” before he stalks to his office - any remnants of a good mood are gone. He’d forgotten how annoying his friends were.
He’s just rested his eyes when Iker knocks on his door, not even bothering for Xabi to answer before coming in. Sergio is right behind him. He tuts Xabi, “Shouldn’t be sleeping at work, Xab.”
Xabi opens one eye. “I’m tired.”
“But what would the boss say if he saw you?” Iker’s grinning, which is a rare thing to see.
Xabi raises an eyebrow. “What’s going on?”
Iker shrugs for a moment before he lets a smirk play at his lips. “Heard you got fucked last night.”
Xabi blanches. “What?”
Iker grins. “I knew it.”
Sergio smiles crookedly at Xabi, like this news is simply the best he’s heard in ages. Like Xabi’s sex-life is really just that important to him. Much more important than his own.
Xabi glares. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A few moments later, he gives a defeated sigh. “I don’t even fucking remember how I got into his bed.”
The door bangs open and Fernando stumbles in, Pepe nearly toppling on top of him. They straighten up and Villa is the one who gets to walk in gracefully. He grins at them and Pepe glares. He turns to Xabi. “You had a fuck last night and didn’t tell me?!”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
“How did Sergio know?”
Xabi turns to Sergio. He narrows his eyes at him. “How did you know?”
Sergio looks a little uncomfortable, “So, you do remember the party last night?” He is saying it slowly, as if Xabi really needs it told to him like this to be able to understand. And of course Xabi remembers it, the Gerrards were expanding their catering service to the whole country now. Xabi had been expecting the promotion to catering manager that he’d been working for ever since Paul passed away a few months before, but instead Mr. Gerrard had put his other son in the position now that he needed more eyes in each location.
Xabi nods a little. “Yeah, yeah, Steven Gerrard,” he says spitefully.
Iker quips, “Steven Gerrard, who has never had a job a day in his life.”
Xabi follows suit. “Steven Gerrard, who doesn’t know how to use a keyboard.”
Sergio looks wearily between the two. They continue.
“Steven Gerrard, who only likes to party.”
Villa adds in, “Steven Gerrard, who is 27 and only likes to party.”
It’s Sergio this time, “Steven Gerrard, who fucked Xabi last night.”
“Steven Gerrard, who-” Xabi starts without really listening to exactly what Sergio has said, but once it sinks in, he stops. His eyes widen almost theatrically. “Liar.”
Everyone stills, but Iker bursts out in uncharacteristic laughter. Xabi turns to give him a look that is so lethal that Sergio thinks Iker is bound to shrink back - he doesn’t. Xabi turns his glare back to Sergio. “You fucking liar.”
Cesc walks in just then, stares at them all for a moment before walking back out. He decides he’d rather not know what all the commotion is about. Nope, he’s not going to deal with it.
“I’m not!” Sergio holds up his hands defensively.
Iker tries to keep a serious face. He turns to Xabi. “It’s okay,” he says, but he can’t help the chuckle that emits from him on the last syllable.
“You fuck, you’re lying,” Xabi repeats to Sergio, albeit defeatedly. “How do you know?”
Sergio smiles at him a bit encouragingly, which is odd in itself so Xabi ignores it. “You know how after everyone had left, you got really fucking drunk?” He doesn’t wait for Xabi to nod before continuing, “I saw you two leave together, smashed and horny.”
“How could you tell we were horny?” Xabi grimaces. He hates this.
Sergio smirks a little despite himself. “Oh, I could tell,” and he winks. Xabi glares even harder.
“I had sex with my boss’ son.”
Villa holds up a finger. “Correction: you had sex with your boss.”
Xabi has called a meeting. Everyone is already gathered, they’re merely just waiting for Xabi to continue. Everyone who works here only got here through the connections they had of each other. Sure, Fernando never knew Iker before he came here, but he knew Sergio and Sergio knew Iker who knew Xabi - and, well, the list goes on. It is quiet until Xabi speaks. “As you all know, Mr. Gerrard’s other son will be replacing Paul. He will be here tomorrow. Now, although he doesn’t know how it works around here, you have to be very courteous with him. We have to help him adapt to our work environment, and I don’t want to hear any complaints. He is your new boss, treat him as one.” He pauses for only a heartbeat before he’s going on again. “You will call him ‘Mr. Gerrard’, not ‘Steven’ or ‘Stevie’, but ‘Mr. Gerrard’.”
When he finishes, Pepe chuckles a bit. “You’re the one who-”
Xabi knows where this is going. He gives him a look that shuts him up. He continues before it can start, “I just don’t want any of you-” He’s directing it at the younger employees - the ones that are only here to make it through college - but tries to be discreet. “Calling him hombre or tío. For all he knows, you’re calling him a bastard. You have to remember that he’s not Paul, and we can’t just-”
He stops and everyone quiets a bit, knows that he was trying to say, we can’t just replace him as easily as his father did. We can’t.
A few moments pass before Villa clears his throat and turns to Pepe, “Hey, Patricia wanted me to ask if you and Yolanda wanted to come over on Friday.”
Sergio asks, “What about me?” He’s grinning a little.
Villa wags his finger, gives a short laugh. “No way am I letting any of you single men into my house again.”
“What if we bring a date?” Fernando smirks.
Pepe rolls his eyes. “When you finally ask Olalla out, I will personally throw you a fiesta.” He turns to Villa. “Count me in.”
Villa turns to Arbeloa. “You?”
“Yeah, Carlota would love to,” he says with a little grin directed at Sergio.
Sergio snorts a little. “Fuck you and your single-men-discrimination, Villa.”
“What’s up?” Sergio asks when he takes a seat next to Fernando in the lounge.
Fernando is staring off into space and seems to only be drawn back into reality when Sergio nudges him. “There is nothing wrong with Olalla. Nothing. At all.”
“Right?” Sergio’s confused.
“Right. I just can’t believe I’m sitting here next to you-”
“Hey,” Sergio warns, smirking as he opens his soda.
Fernando ignores Sergio and continues, “When I could be across the street, asking her out!” He lets out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t understand why I can’t just fucking do it already! I just,” he puts his head in his hands.
Sergio chuckles a little, amused. He kicks Fernando’s leg under the chair. “If this is about the Villa dinner,” he starts but Fernando interrupts him.
“It’s not, Sergio. Can we be serious for one minute of our lives?” He sounds exasperated and tired.
Sergio frowns. He leans forward and presses a hand to the side of Fernando’s head, rubbing at his temple. “You’ll be fine, Fernando. It’ll be fine.”
And Fernando believes him as usual.
The moment Stevie walks in, everyone stiffens. He can feel the change in the air and he stops, looks around at some of the (somewhat) familiar faces from the party the other night. He brings his hand up half-way and gives a little wave, a small smile fixed on his face. “Hello,” he says and he half turns to get a good look at everybody.
A bald headed man raises his hand and takes his precious time in giving a single wave back. “Hello,” he replies, and Stevie realizes that he’s mocking him.
He breaks into a grin and a few of the others chuckle. “I’m Steven, Steven Gerrard,” he walks over to shake his hand. “But you can call me Stevie.”
“Pepe,” he replies. “Head chef.”
Stevie nods. “Had you labeled as a bartender, but.”
“That’d be me,” Villa says, raising up his index finger in acknowledgment. “David Villa - I met you the other night, at the party.”
Stevie laughs good naturedly. “Sorry, mate, I was completely knackered that night. Can’t remember any faces, much less names.”
Everyone breaks into a grin at that, and Stevie looks confused. One of them speaks up. “Really? Nothing at all?” His grin is infectious, and even though Stevie has no idea what’s going on, he smiles back.
“Nope? And you are?”
“Sergio Ramos, maitre d’.”
Stevie nods, pretends he knows what that means. “Cool.”
A younger boy smirks. “It’s just a fancy way of saying the head waiter, tío - er, sir. Sergio likes acting classier than he is by using French terms.” Sergio squeezes an arm around his neck, pulling at his ear. The boy pushes him off and holds out his hand to Stevie. “I’m Cesc - Francesc - but you can just call me Cesc.”
Pepe says, “He’s the line cook. My little baby.”
Cesc snorts a little, muttering under his breath and Stevie laughs. He turns to the last man. “You?”
“Álvaro Arbeloa, sous chef. It’s nice to meet you,” he smiles and he looks genuine.
Sergio says, “Fernando is the other waiter, but it’s his day off. So you’ll probably meet him tomorrow night at the engagement party we’re catering.”
“Okay,” Stevie says, not really caring too much. He’s relieved, really. “You lot are a lot less scary than I was picturing,” he starts when a man walks out of an office to the right, another right behind him. Stevie smiles at the first man, “Hey! Iker Casillas!” It is his first familiar face of the day, which is probably only because his father practically gushes about the Banquet Captain.
“Mr. Gerrard, how are you? How are you settling in into the new apartment?”
“Nicely,” Stevie replies. “And I told you to call me Stevie, stop with the formalities.”
“But-”
“But nothing, you called Paul by his a name basis, you should do the same with me.” Iker has nothing to say to that and he nods, but Stevie continues. “Weren’t there two of you? I mean, two of you ‘banquet captains’ or-”
He stops when he sees the man standing behind Iker, his face is crimson. Stevie looks at him for a long time before he remembers. “Fuck,” he mutters.
Xabi glares. “Yeah.”
Stevie rubs the back of his neck. “Uh,” he clears his throat. “Well, this is awkward.” He smiles a bit, in hopes of relieving the tension, but.
Xabi continues to glare.
Stevie sighs audibly and shrugs, saying, “I’m willing to keep this an utmost professional relationship.” Somewhere behind him, Sergio stifles a laugh. He turns around and sends him a glare. It shuts him up.
Xabi scoffs. “As opposed to what?”
“Xabi,” Iker warns and Stevie turns to him a little thankfully.
Xabi mutters, “Sorry, Mr. Gerrard. Is there anything you’ll need?”
“I’d like to talk to you and Iker alone for a bit, if that’d be alright with you.”
“So, tomorrow we have an event because the Domínguez family is having an engagement party - and their firm hires us for all their professional events, so this is important.”
Stevie nods, trying to keep up with all that Xabi and Iker have told him in the past hour. “So,” he starts and clears his throat. “What am I supposed to do?”
Xabi rolls his eyes, but Iker looks at him thoughtfully. “Xabi will help you with that.” When Stevie looks at him pleadingly, he smiles a little. “You’re responsible for organizing the events, and Xabi is your right-hand man in all that. So,” he says as he gets up, “You both need to get along.” It sounds like an order, and Stevie vaguely wonders what the point of being the ‘boss’ is when everyone else bosses you around.
When he leaves, Stevie meets Xabi’s eyes. “Well-”
“Listen, Mr. Gerrard,” he starts.
“Stevie,” Stevie corrects.
Xabi keeps going. “I don’t want you to go there tomorrow and fuck it up, this is really important to Fernando, he’s-” He wants to say, the girl who’s getting married, you see, Fernando’s in love with her sister. You cannot fuck it up for him, or I will fuck you up, and please, just. Behave. He simply says, “It’s important to him. So. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Stevie frowns. “I won’t,” he says indignantly. “I’ll meet this Fernando tomorrow, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Xabi sighs a little impatiently. He mutters, “Is there anything else?” and gets up to go.
Stevie says, “You know, you could’ve left a number. Fuck, even a name would’ve been nice.”
Xabi throws him a glare as he turns to the door, but he can’t help himself when he smiles as he walks out.
Stevie is excited as they make their way to set up at the engagement party. They had taken the two company vans, and he was riding with the chefs. Cesc is driving, his eyes trained on the road. He doesn’t partake in any of the banter going on, and Stevie admires that.
When they get there, everyone starts unloading things from the vans. Stevie wanders in through the back door, where he sees a tall man leaning against a wall, talking to a shorter woman. He sends a brilliant smile towards the pretty girl - a blonde, petite woman with nice sized breasts (he thinks) and an even nicer smile. She’s talking to a boy - er, man - with spiked blonde hair. He has a mohawk. This must be Fernando, he thinks.
As he walks up to them, he says, “I’m Steven Gerrard.”
The woman replies warmly, “Hello!” She holds out her hand. “Olalla.”
Stevie takes it, doesn’t let go immediately. He just smiles at her, tries to look deep into her eyes - or whatever it was that always worked like a charm for him. “Beautiful,” he says.
The mohawk boy clears his throat and thrusts his hand in Stevie’s direction. “Fernando Torres.”
Stevie grins as he raises an eyebrow. “How old are you?”
“22,” is the sharp reply and Stevie smirks.
“Nice,” he says before Sergio is beside him.
“You two have finally met!” He says, giving Fernando a look that says, smile. “Fernando, this is Steven Gerrard, our new boss.”
Fernando nods a little, and he sends a look right back to Sergio - one that says, did you see how he was looking at Olalla? (To others, it is admirable how well they can read each other.) Fernando clears his throat after a silent eye war with Sergio, smiling at Stevie. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”
Sergio tugs Stevie away and Fernando turns back to Olalla, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s alright,” her smile is earnest and enamored. It makes Fernando’s palms sweat. She looks at him expectantly, and Fernando thinks, maybe this is my moment - I need to ask her now -
But Stevie’s back, slapping a hand on Fernando’s back. “So, I hate to play the ‘boss’ role, but I think you should really get to work.”
Iker is by his side in a moment’s notice. “Uh,” he says quietly. He’s always so quiet, Iker, that Fernando wishes sometimes he’d yell. Yell at Stevie for ruining his moment, for the love of god. He looks at Iker helplessly, and Iker sighs. He pulls at Stevie’s arm, “We need you over there, Stevie.”
But the moment’s lost, and Olalla turns to them and says, “No, no, I should probably go anyway. My sister needs me.” She glances at Fernando before she walks away. “Bye,” she whispers.
Fernando watches her go before turning to Stevie, growling, “Fucker,” and walking away.
Stevie look alarmed, surprised, unsure. “What was that about?”
Iker just shakes his head a bit. Then he too leaves Stevie all alone, standing there like some sort of idiot.
Xabi passes him with a box of utensils. “You could help out, you know.”
Stevie glares.
Sergio pulls at Fernando’s arm, laughing a little. “Oh, come on, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
“Stevie fucking embarrassed me. It was like - I was like - too lazy to do my own job.”
Sergio says, “Fernando, she likes you. Stop being an idiot.”
“It’s just,” he sighs, exasperated. “I haven’t had sex in ages.”
“Yeah, well, me neither - and you don’t see me moping about it,” Sergio snorts.
Villa leans over the counter, “Yes, you do. All the time.”
“More than-” Pepe starts, but Sergio interrupts him with a loud laugh.
“Okay, okay, I get it. But you guys are married, so I don’t think you even have a say in any of this.” He’s smiling from ear to ear and Pepe hands him a tray.
“Just go out there and serve.”
Stevie and Xabi are the only ones in the office one day. Stevie turns to him. “So,” he starts, and falters when Xabi actually turns to look at him.
Xabi asks, “Yes?”
“Um,” he starts. “How many of the guys are single?”
Xabi actually smiles a little at that. Stevie can tell that he thinks he’s a worthless, idiotic, lazy guy, but he can also tell that he likes him. Maybe. Xabi answers, “Most are actually not. The only single ones are Fernando and Sergio.”
“And you,” Stevie adds with a smirk. He’s not sure if he’s flirting. He’s never sure of what he’s doing when he’s with Xabi.
Xabi rolls his eyes. He’s not quite friendly with Stevie, but he’s not malicious either. Anymore. “Yes.”
“And they’re all - straight?”
“Yeah,” Xabi says quietly, turning back to his paperwork.
“Even Sergio?” Stevie asks, because that can’t be possible.
Xabi laughs at that. “Well, let’s just say he loves everyone.”
“Me too,” Stevie grins.
Xabi rolls his eyes.
Xabi walks in on Stevie playing minesweeper on his computer. He glares at him. “You’re supposed to be replying to clients.”
“And say what?”
Xabi glares. He walks out of the room and Stevie stares helplessly at the door. “Xabi!” he calls, “Come back!”
Pepe leans into his doorway. “You’ve got to try harder than that, Stevie,” he winks.
Fernando is over at Sergio’s place, when he breaks the silence. He’s lounging on Sergio’s couch, his legs dangling off the side. “So,” he starts. “I think we should fuck.”
Sergio looks over. His face is a mixture of incredulous and curious. “What?”
“Yeah,” he says, sitting up so he is in a normal position again. “I mean, neither of us is dating anyone and both of us are horny.”
Sergio rolls his eyes. “Fernando, don’t be an idiot.”
Fernando frowns a little. “I don’t see any negative to this. We fuck and that’s it. It’s the best kind of sex there is.”
Sergio thinks about it.
They end up fucking.
Stevie says, “Xabi, I need help.”
“With what?” He says, peering over Stevie’s shoulder to the computer screen. “Who’s the client?”
Stevie shrugs. “Not sure.”
Xabi grumbles something under his breath, leans over to type something. “You have to-”
“What?” Stevie says and Xabi actually looks pained, like helping Stevie with this is bothering him. He has to stretch his entire torso over the desk. He is clearly uncomfortable. Stevie doesn’t move his chair out of Xabi’s way. He reasons, I’m not trying to be an asshole, I just am.
“You’re what?” Xabi asks, and he’s fuming.
Sergio shrugs, embarrassed. “It’s nothing serious, Xabi.”
“He’s in love with Olalla.”
“He’s the one that fucking suggested it,” Sergio spits back.
Iker just leans back on Xabi’s desk and shakes his head. “This isn’t a good idea, Serg.”
“It’s not a bad one either.”
Xabi sighs. “Fine, but don’t run to us when something gets fucked up along the way.”
“He’s my best friend, nothing’s going to get ‘fucked up’, don’t worry.”
He’s grinning when he leaves.
Stevie calls Xabi into his office sometimes for ‘help’. What he really does is let Xabi take over while he gets to watch. Watch him, watch him work, just - watch. He’s embarrassed to admit how much he enjoys Xabi’s company, especially since Xabi isn’t too fond of him. He wants to tell him, you look good in the color green. And red. And blue. He wants to tell him, I like your smile. It makes me happy, makes me forget that my brother passed away some months ago, that my father doesn’t love me as much as him and never will - not even now that he’s gone. He wants to tell him, I still think about that night. I wish I could remember it.
It’s rather embarrassing, because he’s never thought about someone for more than a few days.
He slides in beside Xabi in the supply room. Xabi’s checking off a list of things they need that night, and Stevie rests his hand on Xabi’s midback - like it’s completely natural for Stevie to having his hands on Xabi. Xabi turns to give him an incredulous look, and when he realizes the touching isn’t a prelude to some sort of conversation, he moves away from his touch.
Stevie doesn’t let it faze him. “I can make a mean fettuccine alfredo, you know.”
“Yeah, I-” he starts and then stops. “Is that an offer?” Xabi asks. He looks skeptical. And mildly surprised. And, if Stevie’s quite honest, uninterested. Shit.
“Um, well. Yes.” Stevie shifts from his right foot to his left.
Xabi snorts a little. “You’re crazy,” he mutters before leaving.
Stevie takes it a lot harder than he was expecting. He goes out to a bar that night, gets drunk, and takes home a Spanish lad that isn’t Xabi.
One night, Fernando sits up afterwards and says, “I think we should make a list.”
“A list?” Sergio rubs at his eyes. He was trying to sleep.
“A list of our rules.”
Sergio laughs, sitting up. “Alright, we should write this down.” He reaches over to his bedside table, grabs a notepad and a pen after rummaging around for it.
“Number one,” Fernando starts. He moves so he’s pressed up against Sergio’s side, draping a lazy arm against his waist. “It’s all about the sex.”
Sergio nods, writing it down. “Number two, no sleepovers.”
“Or cuddling.”
“Then we should probably-” Sergio gestures between the two of them.
Fernando nods, realizing as he pushes himself away. “Good. And no holding hands.”
“Or roses.”
“Or expensive dinners.”
Fernando scrunches his nose, nodding. “Basically, none of that relationship stuff.”
“No calling just to say hello, or to hear my beautiful voice,” Sergio starts to write it down, a smirk at his lips, when Fernando stops him.
“That’s not fair, I call you all the fucking time and it’s not because I want to ‘hear your beautiful voice’.” A pause, and then he adds, “No getting jealous.”
“Right,” Sergio says, noting it on the pad. “And if we happen to start dating someone else, we’re only allowed to fuck a max of three times.”
Fernando starts to laugh at that. “We shouldn’t even be fucking in the first place.”
“Just in case,” Sergio smirks.
Fernando takes the notepad from him, gives it a one-over. “Alright, now that that’s set,” he says, getting up and putting the notepad on the bedside table.
Sergio watches him almost hungrily. When Fernando crawls back to the bed, Sergio pulls at his hand until Fernando is straddling him. Fernando leans down and kisses along his jaw, slowly - almost tantalizingly so. Sergio thinks he’d be willing to stay like this forever, really.
Stevie walks into the banquet hall feeling happy. It is probably because Xabi actually smiled at him today.
He heads to where Xabi is standing, speaking with the organizer of the event. The man turns to Stevie. “Mr. Gerrard, thank you so much for participating with us. You’ve done an excellent job in organizing this, I hope it all pays off in the end.”
Stevie smiles. He doesn’t say ‘thank you’, because he and Xabi both know who deserves the praise. When the man leaves, Xabi turns to him. He wants to say, you could’ve corrected him. You could’ve told him who sits on his ass all day while the other works his off. Instead, he sighs a little. “Let’s go.” He looks disappointed. Stevie’s stomach drops.
“Alright,” he mutters as he follows him. Sergio and Fernando are speaking rather closely just inside the door of the kitchen. Sergio says something and Fernando laughs, Stevie thinks he’s got him eating off his every word. He wishes he could do that, debates asking Sergio for advice.
Iker is helping Pepe get everything in place, Álvaro has already started on the main dishes and Cesc is finishing off the appetizers. Villa must be outside, situated at the bar, Stevie thinks. He debates going out there with him, because Xabi isn’t even talking to him. He knows he shouldn’t, it isn’t even in his job description.
But then Iker is by his side. “Do you mind taking over for me out there? I’m going to help Pepe out in here.”
Xabi frowns. “Stevie doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to do.”
“It’s not that hard, Xabi. Besides, he has you,” Iker starts. He motions to Stevie’s suit, “Besides, he’s dressed for the part already.”
Stevie gets to stand beside Xabi the whole night, making sure everything is going according to plan. Nothing goes wrong, nothing ever goes wrong, so mostly they just walk around and make sure everything is in check. Xabi actually smiles at him when they hear everyone discuss how delicious the food is.
Stevie thinks Iker must be insane to give this up, even for just a day.
They pretend like nothing is happening between them. Fernando insists it was a part of their set of rules and so they don’t acknowledge any of it.
Sergio doesn’t realize he hates it until it hits him that Fernando’s been pretending that it doesn’t even happen. If Sergio mentions something about ‘the other night’, Fernando crinkles his nose, like, “What?” All confusion and doubt.
Fernando is at the groceries when he sees her. She’s in the produce section, mulling over which watermelon to buy. He walks up to her and smiles so earnestly that it hurts his cheeks a little. “Hey, how are you?” he says in a rush.
She looks surprised to see him, but glad. “Fernando!” She presses a kiss to his cheek, Fernando smiles harder. “I’m good, and you?”
“Great, actually. Been busy with work.” He looks down at her. “I’ve missed you.”
It’s a dumb thing to say since they rarely talk, but it makes her blush and he thinks of it as a good thing. She mumbles, “Me too. I wish we saw each other more often.”
“Yeah,” and then, “We should have dinner sometime.”
After she says yes, he forgets about his groceries and heads straight to work. The moment he enters, he bounds over to Pepe and wraps his arms tightly around him. “What was that for?”
Fernando smirks, pulling away. “She said yes.”
“What?” It’s Álvaro; he’s putting away a few of his things.
“Olalla. She said yes.”
Stevie smiles, “Congratulations.”
Villa gapes. “No fucking way - you actually asked her?! You?”
Fernando punches his arm. “Fucker.” He looks around. “Where are the others?”
Just then, Xabi’s office opens and he and Sergio come out, laughing about something or the other. Stevie sighs a little inaudibly, Xabi never laughs with him. It’s not fair. None of it is fair.
Sergio’s eyes brighten when he sees Fernando. “Hey, what are you-”
But Fernando doesn’t let him finish, “I asked Olalla out and she said yes.” He says it quickly, all in one breath, like if he doesn’t get it out now, he never will.
Sergio’s smile falters, but only momentarily. No one notices, really. No one except Xabi. And Iker. And Stevie. And Villa. And - everyone except Fernando. He bounds over to him, jumping up and down a little bit on the balls of his feet. “Fucking finally. How long did it take you again? 3 years?”
Fernando takes Olalla to a nice little restaurant. They talk about politics, music, movies. She even partakes in a bit of football banter. Fernando thinks she’s perfect. He texts Sergio about it, when she’s in the bathroom. The reply he gets is: sounds like you’ve found yr match :-) x. It makes Fernando frown and he doesn’t know why.
When she comes back, their food has made it to the table. “Finally,” he breathes out and she looks surprised, as if he were talking about her.
“Um, sorry?”
Fernando’s eyes widen. “No, no, I meant the food.” She laughs and he says, “You could’ve taken as long as you liked, really. I’d have waited.”
“Really? How long?” Her eyes are shining.
She looks beautiful. Happy.
He says, “Forever,” and means it.
Stevie says, “You look really good today,” and Xabi raises an eyebrow.
“What?”
“I mean, you look good every day.”
Xabi looks unimpressed.
Villa grins openly. He nudges Iker, who is doing some paperwork. When he looks up and sees the look Stevie’s giving Xabi, the corners of his lips turn upward. Villa whispers, “Five bucks says they’ll be fucking in a month.”
“You must not know Xabi,” Iker snorts. “You’re on.”
“Does this count? As one of our three times?”
Fernando looks at him, amused. “Nah. We’re not officially ‘together’ yet, so no. Rules didn’t say anything about when we started dating, right?”
Neither of them can remember. Or maybe they pretend not to.
Sergio drapes his leg over Fernando’s, leans over and presses a kiss to his shoulder, his neck, his cheek. It’s almost adoring, his actions, but neither of them are willing to think about that so they get rid of their clothes and Sergio fucks Fernando like he’s not in love with him, like this is No Big Deal.
Stevie wishes it was his day off. He had started the day well enough, complimenting Xabi as usual, only to be yelled at in return.
“This is getting really fucking annoying,” Stevie spits after Xabi gives him a long lecture on exactly what Stevie has done wrong with his paperwork.
“It’s your own fault,” he glowers right back.
“I’m the fucking boss, Xabi. Don’t forget who you’re talking to.” It’s the first time Stevie has used the ‘boss’ card, but he’s just really fucking annoyed and really fucking tired.
“Well,” Xabi starts. “Maybe if you acted more like your brother-”
And that’s the last straw, really. “Get out,” Stevie growls.
Xabi isn’t sure what to say, his eyes widen. He’s seen Stevie get angry, but not like this. Not when he’s so angry that he can barely speak, not when he looks sad on top of it. “I,” he says.
“I don’t want to hear it. You don’t know anything about me and my brother, so I just don’t want to fucking hear it. Get out.”
Fernando tuts him when he walks out. He rubs a hand to his face and goes to his office.
He goes to apologize. Stevie is staring out the window. His mouth is downcast, something not often seen on the Englishman. “I’m sorry,” he clears his throat. “Are you okay?”
Stevie doesn’t look at him. “When I was younger, I wanted to be a footballer.”
Xabi waits for him to continue, and when it doesn’t come, he supplies, “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he replies softly. “Paul did too, but I was better. My dad - he wanted one of us to follow him in this-” He gestures around the building. “He picked Paul,” he shrugs. “He thought I had more of a chance of making it big, so he made Paul stop. Made him focus on his studies, and he excelled in that, you know?”
Xabi shrugs.
Stevie continues. “My dad loved him so much; he was the one that would take on the family business. He was the good son.”
Xabi is frowning. “What happened to football?”
Stevie sighs a little, shifts in his seat so he’s finally facing Xabi. He meets his eyes. “One day, after Paul had graduated with a master’s, and I was one signature away from signing with Liverpool - ” He gives a breathless little laugh, like suddenly he is just so exhausted. “It was an accident, he just - we swerved. The car fucking swerved.” He scoffs a little, and Xabi notices that his eyes are red.
“I’m sorry,” Xabi says quietly and he’s sincere, Stevie can feel it.
Stevie shrugs a little. The way he’s looking at Xabi, it’s just. “I ruined his dreams - he ruined mine.”
Sergio texts Fernando, calls him, does everything to try to get a hold of him. It is nearly impossible, what with Olalla now in the picture. The only times they see each other are at the banquets, and they’re both so busy then.
Fernando is out of breath, laughing as he brings back his empty tray into kitchen. He hands it to Cesc to refill. “They’re like animals out there.”
Sergio gets back in a few minutes after, just as Cesc finishes refilling the tray. “Pepe, they’re asking about the main course, tío.”
He rests his arm on Fernando’s shoulder, and Fernando leans into the touch. He moves his hand to rub at the back of Fernando’s neck and smiles at him. “Tired?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe, man,” he sighs, groaning a little when Cesc gives him another tray. Without a second glance, he’s gone, and Sergio’s turning in his place to watch him go.
When he turns back to the chefs, they’re all watching him. Iker looks concerned. He says, “Sergio,” and Sergio only shakes his head.
“Don’t give me any bullshit, Iker. Nothing is up.”
“You sure about that?” The concern in his voice is killing Sergio.
“Fuck you, he’s my best friend. I can’t be happy to see my best friend?”
Xabi stays late at the office one night. No one else is left, and he really should be heading home, but. He’s in the storage room making a last minute check to make sure they have all the supplies for the charity event they’re catering tomorrow.
When he finishes, he goes to drop off his papers in Stevie’s office. It’s a mess. He cleans up, just a little bit so that at least the wood on the desk can be seen. He puts the pencils and pens back in place, puts the paper clips in a drawer, hopes Stevie will like what he’s ‘done with the place’ in the morning. Doubts he’d even notice, but, well.
Stevie wakes up sweating one night. He doesn’t realize why until he remembers -
he dreamt of Xabi. Of the curve of his back, the way he smelled when they fell asleep, his smile when he was drunk.
Shit.
The first time Fernando and Olalla kissed, Fernando swears he saw fireworks. “You know, like in the movies?”
Villa tries to hold in a snort. He tries. “Fernando. I’m telling you right now that nothing is like what they show in the movies.”
“I swear, Villa, it was.”
Sergio chuckles lightly. “I’m sure you saw daisies and lights and fireworks, Fer.”
Fernando just smiles, stares off into space dreamily. He’s doodling something onto the form he’s supposed to be filling out. Probably hearts or some shit.
Sergio watches him. Villa notices and nudges him, says, “Help me out with this load?”
Iker’s girlfriend has a party for getting a promotion for her job. Instead of catering it, they’re all invited. Fernando brings Olalla, grins at everyone as he shows her off. When he spots Sergio, he almost forgets about his girlfriend for a second before taking her hand and leading her to him. Sergio hugs him, and it feels like they haven’t seen each other in forever, when it has really only been a few days.
When Sergio pulls back, he takes the hand of the girl behind him before turning back to Fernando and Olalla. “This is Lara.”
She is tall, brunette, and gorgeous. Fernando feels something churn in the pit of his stomach. He can’t quite place it.
But it spreads to his chest when Sergio tightens his arm around her waist. Fernando smiles politely at her, and Olalla gushes. The two hit it off. Sergio smiles proudly at Lara and Fernando says quietly, “You didn’t tell me about her.”
Sergio turns to look at him coolly. “Yeah, well, you were busy, Fer.”
“Sergio,” he frowns.
“What?”
Fernando stares at him hard for a moment. He forces a smile. “I like her.”
“Good. Because I do too.”
Xabi arrives a bit late to the party. He was busy in the office, had forgotten to check the time. It could happen to anyone - but always to Xabi. He gets there with a bottle of champagne for Sara, chats amiably with her for a few moments before he sees Stevie. There are three girls surrounding him, fucking giggling at every word he utters.
He walks over, plasters on a smile. “Hello, Stevie.”
Stevie’s eyes widen slightly. “Xabi!” He watches him for a few seconds before he remembers the girls. “This is Lizzie, Jessica, and - ” He scrunches up his nose. Xabi knows he’s trying to remember her name. When he fails to, he says, “this one’s my favorite.”
Xabi snorts. Stevie grins a little wryly. One of them, Lizzie, Xabi thinks, says, “We’re American,” in a bad accent.
“Right,” Xabi nods, unimpressed. He turns back to Stevie, “I guess I’ll be seeing you.”
Later, he sees Stevie and Lizzie sneak off upstairs. It makes his blood boil.
Stevie wakes up at 3 pm the next day surrounded by three American girls. He stares at his watch a few minutes, willing it to turn back time. Willing it to prove to him that it’s lying.
He sneaks out before they wake up, gets to work with what he was wearing the night before.
Xabi is livid. “We have a fucking baptism to cater and you smell like beer.”
“I’ll just have a quick change - ”
Xabi presses his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “There’s no time, we have to go to set up now.”
Stevie lets out a huff of air. “This isn’t really your decision to make, Xabi.”
He gets up and stalks off to his office. Slams the door behind him.
There is a tailored suit hanging off his chair.
Sergio has a plate of Pepe’s best quiche, and everyone is glued to him. Villa passes by him once on his way to the kitchen and grabs one. Sergio wants to kick him.
“What? I’m helping you. If you finish your plate, you can go back to the kitchen. The faster they finish…”
“That’s stupid.”
“What’s up your ass?” He hasn’t got much to do, since no one seems to want to get drunk at a baptism.
“I’m just tired,” which is the truth.
Villa looks momentarily concerned. Villa never looks concerned. Sergio turns away, walks around with his quiche for a bit before heading back to the kitchen.
“Haven’t hung out together in a while.” Fernando is refilling his plate.
Sergio glances at him as he sets his own down. “You wanna?”
Fernando stays at Sergio’s that night. They’re watching football highlights from the week when it happens. Fernando’s hand finds itself on Sergio’s thigh. He glances at him.
Fernando smiles a little. He looks oddly embarrassed, or bashful, even. “First time out of our three, right?”
At first, Sergio wants to say, well, I’m not too comfortable with this. Instead, he says, “Alright,” and moves slowly until he is straddling him, pushing him down on the couch. He looks down at him, and it feels loaded - the way his eyes rake over Fernando, the way he pushes his hands into his hair as he kisses him. The way he pulls off his shirt, like his life depends on it - on this. The way he presses kisses to his jaw, his neck, down his chest.
Stevie’s father comes to visit once. Stevie’s on edge, absolutely driven mad by the time the day arrives. He fixes his tie three times, until finally he pulls it off - stamps it onto the ground.
At first, Xabi debates pretending he hasn’t heard him. He taps his fingers along his desk for a moment before standing up and making his way to Stevie’s office. He doesn’t knock, walks straight in and picks up his tie off the floor. He straightens it out and looks at Stevie. “You okay, Boss?”
“Don’t call me that,” Stevie says, voice quiet.
“What do you need?” His voice is quiet, and somehow - it’s sincere.
“I just,” he sighs. “My fucking tie, Xabi. It’s fucking doing my head in.”
Xabi’s mouth twitches. He tries not to smile. “Your tie?”
Stevie nods, and he looks about five years old. “Fucking hell.”
Xabi moves forward, wraps the tie around his neck and begins to tie it. “You’re going to be fine, Gerrard.”
“He hates me, you know. You should be careful to not let it tarnish how much he loves you guys.”
“He doesn’t,” Xabi says. He looks up at the ceiling for a moment, in a way Stevie knows means that he feels uncomfortable.
Stevie looks at him and says, “Thanks,” and then, “I like your suit,” which he hopes Xabi will take as, I like you.
Mr. Gerrard arrives approximately at 12:15 pm.
He’s greeted by Iker, who leads him into the building. He introduces him to everyone while Stevie and Xabi stand back. Xabi looks at Stevie and gives him a look that says, you should be doing that, and Stevie replies with one that says, fuck off.
Neither of them can remember when they reached the point that they could understand each other’s facial expressions. Stevie wants to laugh, but then his father is in his face.
“Steven, how are you?” He asks, holding out his hand.
Stevie stares at it. The back of his eyes sting. The last time he saw his father was at his brother’s funeral, and the first thing he says to him is how are you and a handshake? Cool. He looks up and sees Xabi’s eyes are on him. Everyone’s are, for that matter. But Xabi’s -
Stevie takes his father’s hand. “Good, thanks. And you?”
“Great, lad.” He eyes Stevie up and down, pats his back in approval. Xabi smiles a little.
Xabi says, “Hello, sir,” with a polite smile.
“Xabi!” He beams. He likes Xabi. He remembers Xabi. “I hear many good things about you, Xabi. You seem to be doing all the work around here, eh? I doubt my son’s been too much of a help.” The way he says it - it sounds like he’s apologizing. Like he’s saying, I’m sorry I put this burden on you.
But Xabi doesn’t even miss a beat. “Actually, Stevie does so much, sir. He basically runs this place. Iker and I have had a much lighter workload since he’s come on board.”
Mr. Gerrard raises an eyebrow, like, really?
Xabi continues, “He’s a great leader, and a pleasure to be around, sir. I can’t imagine how tough the last few months would have been without him.”
Stevie’s mouth is comically open. Iker nudges him to close it before his father sees. Stevie - he gives a look to Xabi that says, thank you. Xabi smiles in reply and Stevie is suddenly hit with this inexplicable desire to hug him. To just crush him in his arms.
Fernando fucks Olalla on a Tuesday night. She’s all curves and soft skin. She’s pale, but with the right light, she looks incredibly beautiful. Fernando thinks that if he weren’t in love before, he surely must be now.
At work, Villa watches him like a hawk for the first few hours. Finally, he smirks. “You had sex last night.”
Sergio’s head snaps up, and for a moment, he’s confused. But then it hits him and his eyes widen. It takes a moment before Fernando sees him smile. He shakes his head as he claps Fernando’s back. “Finally?”
“Finally,” Fernando reaffirms, but it feels wrong and he doesn’t know why.
On Mr. Gerrard’s last day visiting, he says to Stevie, “I know Xabi was lying.”
“What?”
“I know you, Stevie, and he certainly wasn’t talking about you.”
Stevie burns red. “I didn’t tell him to.”
Mr. Gerrard shakes his head and sighs. “I miss Paul.”
Stevie turns away. “Me too,” he mutters.
His father doesn’t look at him. “Sometimes I wish, I wish you-”
“I get it, dad,” Stevie says sharply before getting up and leaving. He doesn’t know what he wanted to say, but he sure can imagine. I wish you were him. He didn’t have to say it for Stevie to know.
He stays late in his office that night. Xabi knocks around midnight and asks, “Aren’t you going home?”
Stevie doesn’t look at him. He says, “Don’t know, mate.”
Xabi’s eyebrows furrow. He walks to him. He touches his arm and moves closer. Stevie can feel his breath on his shoulder. “What do you need?” He asks, voice quiet. It’s the same question as before, but it means more this time.
Stevie isn’t sure how to do this. He’s not sure how to ask. Instead, he takes Xabi’s hand and pulls him down, presses their lips together softly. It takes a moment or two before what’s happening catches up to them. Xabi deepens the kiss and Stevie gets out of his seat, pressing Xabi against his desk. He pulls away, panting, and for a moment - they both wonder if this is the right thing to do. It barely registers in their brains before Stevie pushes some papers out of the way and Xabi lifts himself onto the desk. Stevie settles in between his legs, kisses his neck.
Xabi concentrates on breathing in and out.
Stevie wakes up first this time. He thinks, shit, bugger, fuck. He looks around his office. It’s an absolute mess. Papers are on the floor; his coat is thrown over his chair; he can’t find one of his shoes.
Shit, bugger, fuck. Fucking shit, fucking fuck, fuck, fuck.
He looks at the time. Iker will be in in about half an hour. He looks around for his pants and pulls them on when he finds them under his desk. He needs to get home and shower. He debates waking up Xabi, but when he looks down at him - he just looks so peaceful.
He leaves without a note. Xabi wakes up and once he remembers the night before - something deep inside his ribcage starts to ache in an unfamiliar way. He presses the heel of his hand into his left eye for a moment before he gets up and walks to his car.
When Stevie gets back to the office, Xabi is gone. Xabi doesn’t show up to work that day.
Iker stops Fernando on his way out. He looks at Fernando long and hard before he even opens his mouth.
And then he shuts it.
He glances at Sergio and then back to Fernando, a disappointed look in his eyes, and Fernando suddenly knows what this is all about.
Later, he goes over to Sergio’s.
“What are you doing here?” Sergio is surprised, but happy. He pulls Fernando into his apartment, slaps his back. “Missed you, bro.”
It’s only been a week since their last time. Fernando says, “You know, we don’t have to.”
Sergio’s eyebrows knit together. He’s confused. Fernando thinks about how he hates it when he’s confused, how he wishes he could keep Sergio from ever being confused again. He wants to punch himself. Sergio asks, “What?”
“Fuck. I mean, we don’t have to fuck.”
“This would only be our second time, though.”
“I just - I feel like an asshole about all this, you know? I feel like I’m forcing you to.”
“You’re not, Fer. There are two of us here, you know.” His eyes are soft.
“I still feel like a selfish bastard, Serg,” he breathes out a laugh.
Sergio touches his face lightly. “Fernando.”
Fernando says, “Yeah, I know. I mean - I’m not under some allusion that you’re helplessly in love with me or something. I’m not that self-absorbed.” He’s joking. Of course he’s joking. His eyes are twinkling with a held in smirk.
Sergio forces on a smile. “Exactly.”
Xabi comes into work the next day. He knows it’s irrational to think they all know, but he still reddens as he walks past them and into his office.
Stevie walks in behind him. “Listen,” he starts but Xabi doesn’t let him finish.
“Please, don’t.” He’s not meeting his eyes. “I did you a favor the other night - because you’re my boss and I respected your brother. Can we just - pretend it didn’t happen now?”
Stevie’s face - it’s a mixture of emotions that Xabi has never seen on him before. Something inside Xabi jostles, maybe. He almost takes it back. Almost. Stevie shakes his head and says in an unfamiliar voice, “No.”
“Stevie.”
“You’re lying and we both know it. I know you feel something for me.”
Xabi looks away. It only confirms it. He says, voice soft, “Please, don’t.”
Stevie touches his face gingerly. He traces down from the tip of his eyebrow to his jaw with his thumb. “What are you afraid of?”
Xabi still won’t meet his eyes. “I don’t -” He stops and finally looks at him. “I don’t do the whole relationship thing.”
Stevie snorts. “Come on. I’m not going to hurt you, Xabi.”
Xabi shakes his head, looking away again. “But I’m going to hurt you, Stevie.”
If eyes could frown, Stevie’s do just that when he hears him. “Xabi,” he pulls his face so that he’s looking at him.
Xabi continues, and his voice has fallen an octave. “I don’t fall in love, Stevie. I’m incapable of it. And you’re - you’re so -” His eyes are soft. He looks as much in love as anybody could be, but. But Xabi doesn’t fall in love. Ever.
“I still want to try.”
Xabi’s frown deepens. “But. You’re going to get hurt, Stevie.”
Stevie - he looks down at the ground and shuffles his legs a bit. His eyebrows are furrowed and his mouth is set in a firm line. When he speaks, his eyes are downcast. “You don’t have to worry about that,” and smiles a bit when he looks up at Xabi. He takes Xabi’s hand and leads him to the desk.
When he strips Xabi of his clothes, his stomach drops. Maybe Xabi should worry, after all.
“I’m fucked.” Sergio puts his head in his hands and groans.
Cesc puts his hand on his back and rubs, unsure but sympathetic. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“I need - fuck, where the fuck is Xabi? I need to fucking talk to Xabi.” His face is still in his hands.
Cesc is concerned. “Should I - get him? He’s been in his office since this morning.”
“No. I tried talking to him earlier. He needs to be alone for a bit.” He turns to look at Cesc, finally. “Does Stevie know he came in already?”
“I think so,” he says with a shrug. “He was in there earlier. For like, 5 hours.”
Sergio sits up. His forehead wrinkles for a moment before he gets up and walks to Xabi’s office. For a moment, he debates knocking. “Xabi?” he opens the door slowly. Xabi’s turned to the back wall. Sergio walks to him. “What’s up?”
Xabi shakes his head. “I’m in a bad mood, Sergio. Just don’t-”
“What happened?”
Xabi shakes his head, quick and fluid. “Nothing.”
“Xabi.”
Xabi meets his eyes. He doesn't say anything.
Sergio exhales slowly. “I’m in love with Fernando,” he offers.
Xabi’s frown deepens considerably. He reaches forward and touches his arm. “Stevie and I doing the whole - dating - thing.” A pause. “We’re both fucked, aren’t we?”
“Yeah,” a breath of laughter and then silence.
part 2.