Hotel Ferrero (Chapter 11)

[flamyshine]

Title: Hotel Ferrero
Pairing: Nadal/Gasquet, Djokovic/Roddick, Safin/Ferrero, Federer/Moya
Other characters: Andy Murray, Ancic, Tipsarevic, Baghdatis, Monfils
Rating: PG
Warnings: Vampires, mentions of blood
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: Janko talks to Mario about his stunt while Marcos helps a worried Roger. Andy Murray pays a visit to Novak's practice court while Richard fights against temptation.

From the previous chapter:

Richard finally got Rafael in his atelier while Andy Roddick helped Novak put star stickers on his coffin. Roger was disappointed at Carlos’ decision to stay with him rather than rest at his aunt’s place and Juan Carlos got another letter from his favorite fan.

Chapter 11: Dangerous minds

Mario had just put one of his favorite books, Shakespeare’s sonnets, back on the shelf when Janko knocked and stepped into his room.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” The Croatian assumed that something must have gone wrong because his human friend wasn’t asleep at this time of the night.

“I can’t sleep because of you.” Janko dragged a chair near Mario’s desk and the vampire brought him a glass of milk.

“Did I make some noise?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. I just need to hear that you’ll stop that little stunt of yours.”

“What little stunt?”

“You know what I mean. With Juanqui?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Mario played dumb.

Janko had expected this kind of reaction from his friend but he wasn’t in the mood to play along. “Mario, I know you have feelings for him.”

“For our boss? Ha-ha, not really. I like him but who doesn’t? He’s a great boss.”

No matter how hard Mario tried to laugh it over, Janko wasn’t persuaded.

“Mario, you can tell me anything. I’m your friend and I just don’t want to see you get hurt anymore. Things won’t end prettily if you go on like this.” The Serb hoped that the Croatian would realize the very simple fact.

Mario looked at his friend whom he knew he could trust but still hesitated a while before letting out a sigh. “It’s not like I ever planned to go on like this. I was going to stop. It just didn’t happen that way.”

“Well, you can always stop right now. Does he know how you feel about him? I know Marat doesn’t.”

Mario shook his head and snorted. “Marat never really knows anything that doesn’t involve his good looks and his ego.”

Janko was a good friend of Marat but the Croatian’s words made him laugh. “He’s smarter than he pretends to be. You should be careful. And we both know how smart Juanqui is. It’s just a matter of time that he finds out.”

Mario sipped some of his own milk. “I’ve been sending him letters, you know.”

“You did what?” Janko was taken aback. “You sent letters to him and our super smart boss didn’t recognize your handwriting? Ah, you must have typed them.”

“No, I wrote them with my left hand.”

“You can write with your left hand? How come I didn’t know that? I’m supposed to be your best human friend!” The Serb used two of his fingers to drag both ends of his mouth down, making a sad face.

“Ha-ha, I didn’t think that it was a big deal, Janko.”

“Well, if it helps you write to the person you like, it is a big deal.”

Mario just shrugged his shoulders and Janko asked. “What happens if he finds out?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t seem to be too worried.”

Mario shrugged again. “What could possibly happen? I’m sure he’ll just call me in his office and tell me that he’s flattered but that he’ll still stick with Marat.”

“If you already know all that, why are you still writing to him?”

“Because I don’t want to regret anything once it’s all over. I don’t want to get stuck with the feeling that I should’ve tried to express at least some of those unspoken words.”

Janko finished his milk and put an even more serious face on. “How do you even send letters to him? You don’t just leave them on his desk, do you?”

“I go to the post office.”

“But we travel all the time.”

“Yes, we do. But every country has a post office, in case you didn’t know, Janko.” Mario thought that this could be a good joke but obviously, Janko didn’t think so.

“But if you post your letters in the same city as the one where Juanqui’s staying, don’t you think that it’s too risky?”

Then all of a sudden, Janko knew what Mario was doing. “Don’t tell me that you want him to notice.”

The Croatian just smiled.

“Oh, no. That’s not good, Mario. You have to quit doing it. We know that Juanqui’s smart but we also know that he can be very very cold. Don’t even think that you would be an exception.”

“You really think he can be cold to me too? He always says that I’m the best assistant he could ever ask for.”

Janko got himself another glass of milk and added. “Trust me, Mario, he just said that because he doesn’t know about this whole suicide plan.”

“Don’t call it like that.”

“But it looks like that.”

“I’ll stop after sending two more letters.”

The Serb stared at his friend. “I’m suggesting that you should stop right now. Or maybe just one more to say goodbye.”

“But seven is the lucky number. I’ll really stop this time. I swear. It’s becoming too much for me too anyway...”

“He’ll find out at any minute and I’m telling you, your life is going to be miserable.” Janko sighed.

Mario knew what to do when he was in danger. He displayed his best puppy eyes and saw his friend frown which meant that his usually reliable weapon was working once again.

“Fine. Two more and that’s it.”

“Okay, just two more.”

“Then we’ll try to find you someone better than him.”

“There’s no one better than Juanqui.”

“You’re wrong. There are always unexpected surprises in this world. Maybe we could ask Marcos. He’s got tons of friends.”

“Oh, please. He’s got tons of friends all right but not even half of them are decent vampires. I wonder where he met those guys.”

“Really? Huh. Maybe he met them in an eating contest or something.”

They could both picture Marcos with Rosemary in his arms, watching an eating contest, with his mouth watering.

“You’re probably right because his friends looked like they could eat a lot. I don’t even want to know how much they weigh.”

While Mario was describing Marcos’ friends to Janko, Marcos himself was having a hard time because of his friends.

“You absolutely hate me, right? Right?” Gael yelled into the phone.

The Cypriot rubbed his ear and answered. “Jesus, what went wrong? He’s a nice guy, you know. You shouldn’t judge people by their weight.”

“I wouldn’t if he hadn’t stepped on my feet and almost gave me a foot injury!”

“Relax. You said you didn’t like hairy or bald ones so I assumed that you didn’t have any problems with slightly stout ones.”

“I know he’s your friend but we don’t normally call that slightly stout! He almost crushed my ribs when he hugged me good morning and this is all on you!!”

Marcos was about to say something nice about his friend when someone knocked on his door.

“Hang on, Gael. Someone’s at the door.”

“Don’t try to avoid me with that kind of lie, Marcos! His eyes changed to dark grey when he hugged me and I felt violated!”

“Gael, someone’s really at the door. I’ll call you back.” Marcos hung up and answered the door.

“Roger?” The Cypriot rubbed his eyes, wondering why one of the hotel VIPs would directly come and see him.

“Is this a bad time? Someone at the front desk told me that you would be here.” Roger smiled gently.

“No, please come in.”

As Roger was the customer who enjoyed exploring the hotel the most, he had chatted a few times with the chef about cooking and herbs and had even got advices about when to use which specific herb.

While Roger grabbed himself a chair to sit down, Marcos gave him his options. “Water? Milk? Tea? I’ve got some liquor as well but I don’t think Juanqui will be too happy if I serve you alcohol.”

“Tea, please.”

“Smart choice.”

Marcos poured Roger some tea and asked with curiosity. “So what can I do for you? Another session of herbology?”

“Actually I’m here to ask for help, Marcos. I wanted to check with you first before visiting a vampiric pharmacy.”

The chef sat down across the Swiss with a worried look on his face. “Is Carlos sick? Is his shoulder that bad?”

Roger shook his head. “His shoulder’s certainly seen better days but that’s not why I’m here. He wouldn’t sleep during the day, you know. He’s playing this supportive partner role and he’s trying to stay awake when he should be sleeping. I’m worried that it would make his body heal slowly.”

“That is worrying, Roger. Vampires sleep a lot especially during summer. And if he’s sick, he should be getting all the sleep in the world.”

“Yeah, so I’ve heard. I was hoping that you could recommend me some herbs that would help him go to sleep. I don’t want to use drugs on him.”

“Well, lavender always works. They even sell pillows stuffed with lavender. Chamomile tea’s good and oh, you could use massage oil on him or put a few drops of herb essential oil in his bath.”

“See? I knew I came to the right person.” Roger smiled, feeling much better than before.

“You know what? I can give you some lavender and chamomile right now but maybe it’s better for you to check out this shop.” Marcos wrote down the address and drew a simple plan for the Swiss.

“Oh, it’s not too far from the hotel.”

“Yes and you can always ask the front desk to do all the shopping for you if you want. One of the conveniences of staying in our hotel.”

“Ha-ha, if this makes Carlos sleep at the right time, I’ll call Mr. Ferrero and insist that you’re such a great employee that deserves a big bonus.” Roger took another sip of his tea.

“Now that you mention it, Roger, there is something you could do for me in return. Of course, you don’t have to do it. I just thought that it was worth asking.”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Carlos has got a lot of nice vampire friends, right?”

“Yes... oh, you want to meet one of them?” Roger got excited.

“No, not for me. I’m a happy single, thank you very much. It’s just that... you know Gael Monfils, right?”

“The vampire tennis player? Yes.”

“He’s been yelling at me on the phone because he didn’t like my friend I introduced him. Urgh... he could’ve had a successful career as an opera singer, you know. He almost made me deaf.”

Roger laughed and promised him. “Even if herbs don’t work for Carlos, I’ll ask him if he’s got a nice friend for Monfils. I guess he’s over Richie now, then?”

“Yes, it seems so. And Richie’s insanely happy with Nadal by the way.”

“I practiced with Rafa this afternoon and he was on the verge of drooling because he couldn’t stop smiling like a fool. I wonder what kind of pictures the photographers had ended up with.” Roger chuckled.

“Well, you’ve got to admit that Richie’s cute.” Marcos thought that Rafael was the lucky one to have his friend.

“Well, it must be great to have someone like Rafa as a boyfriend.” Roger was rather on his fellow player’s side.

“Oh, come on, Richie could have anybody. He’s a genius stringer.”

“And Rafa’s a genius player.”

“Oh, well, they’re a good match.” Marcos admitted.

“They’re a great match.” Roger insisted.

“No, you guys are a great match. So let’s get you those herbs because I don’t want to see you guys having trouble. Would you like to follow me to the kitchen or do you want to wait here?”

“I suppose a quick walk won’t hurt.” Roger rose to his feet.

“Where’s Carlos right now?”

“He was dozing off in front of the TV before I came up here. He hasn’t even taken a nap while I was practicing.”

“Then what did he do? He couldn’t have watched you practice.”

“He told me that he tried to answer some of his fan mails and surfed the net.”

“Huh. Interesting.” Marcos grabbed his key card and let Roger out of the room. “Let’s make the vampire tennis king get his form back, shall we?”

Roger nodded and felt relieved to be in the right hands.

“Novak, you need to come in one step earlier!”

“Okay, coach. I’ll try again.”

Novak was practicing his volley with his coach when he heard familiar footsteps not too far away from him.

‘Isn’t that Andy’s?’

He hit one more backhand volley and signaled to his coach that he wanted to take a break.

“Ok, let’s take five.”

Novak was right. Andy Murray was seated right behind the bench where Novak had his bags on.

The Serb walked quickly towards the bench. “Andy? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at your office?”

Even though they weren’t lovers anymore, Novak was happy to see him as long as Andy didn’t try anything stupid.

“Good night to you too, Novak. I just wanted to see if you’re really drinking our product.”

Novak let out a laugh and grabbed a bottle of Bloodorade that was near his feet. “As you can see, I’m drinking your product just as it’s mentioned in the contract. Happy now?”

“Hmm... since the bottle’s already half empty, I guess it’s safe to say that you really drink our product, then.”

Novak laughed out once more at the exaggerated seriousness in Andy’s voice but they both knew that that wasn’t the reason why the busy businessman had come all the way down to a practice court.

“Seriously, Andy, why are you here?”

“I’m here to watch you practice. I might be out of town for your Wimbledon matches so I thought that I should at least get to see some of your shots here. You know I’m your biggest fan.”

The tennis player liked what he had heard. “It’s good to know that you’ll still cheer for me after all we’ve gone through. I knew we could be great friends, Andy.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t like you. I’m just the biggest fan of your backhand down the line, that’s all.” Andy spoke with a huge grin on his face.

“Andy!”

Novak grabbed a water bottle and was ready to shoot water at him when he spotted a laptop. “Is that your laptop?”

“Yes. I wish I could only watch you practice but unfortunately, I’ve got work to do.”

“Then why don’t you just go back to your office?”

“Because I still want to watch a few shots from you.”

Novak wasn’t totally convinced about the sudden obsession for watching his practice but he just nodded. “Feel free to watch then. Oh, by the way, even if I mis-hit the ball and it crashes your laptop, I won’t pay for it. Ok?”

Now Andy wanted to throw something at the giggling face but he just decided to enjoy the smile that was once all his until not too long ago.

‘Patience, Andy. Don’t worry. I can get him back. He’ll soon get tired of that human.’

“Um... Andy? Is everything okay?” Novak noticed the change of expression on his friend’s face.

“Sure. Everything’s fine.” The Scot gave him an assuring smile.

“I’m happy to see you, Andy. I thought you wouldn’t want to see me for a while. So I’m really happy that you’ve come to see me.”

Andy looked up with wide eyes. “I didn’t think that I’d live to hear that again.”

Novak’s voice went soft. “You know, whatever happens, I still want you as my best friend and I don’t think that I’ll be able to live properly without you. My good days and bad days were all connected with yours.”

Andy tried his best to absorb the moment. He wanted it engraved in his heart forever. “Same here.”

“Good. Now I can happily go back to practice.”

As Novak skipped back to the court, Andy watched him attentively. According to his analysis, he had advantage over the other Andy during the night. He could stay awake until morning while he was sure that the human couldn’t. Andy was going to play along as Novak’s best friend and wait for the right time to step up. He knew by experience that at some point, Novak and Andy would have issues and when that time comes, he wouldn’t hesitate to snatch Novak back into his arms.

But in the meantime, all Andy could do was just lingering around the Serb.

‘He’ll feel my presence enough. I’ll make sure of that.’

The Scot smiled at Novak who looked back and waved.

‘Well, I should get to work now. God bless whoever invented laptops.’

Andy chuckled at the fact that he was actually asking for God’s blessing for someone and turned his laptop on. He was going to work while Novak was practicing and was planning to ask the player for a bite afterwards.

‘It seems to be the perfect plan.’

Andy grinned once more before burying himself in work.

Richard quietly closed the door of Nalbandian’s room, paying attention to both sides of the hallway.

‘Eww, I’m never going to drink him again.’

The French didn’t feel like the Argentinean’s blood was fit for him but he knew that he couldn’t complain when he was stealing blood.

‘I wonder what Rafa’s tastes like...’

Since the day when Rafa had posed for him, he couldn’t help thinking about Rafa’s blood.

‘I know I shouldn’t think about drinking someone I like. It’s risky even though I’m only half a vampire.’

Richard went up the stairs and put the master card key back in Mario’s office before returning to his atelier.

“Rafa?”

The Spaniard was leaning against Richard’s door.

“Good night, Richie.” Rafael grinned.

“Good night to you too. Shouldn’t you be sleeping soon?” Richard looked at his watch before giving a quick peck on his boyfriend’s cheek.

“I just came to see how your sculpture was going. I won’t stay long.” In fact, the human didn’t care too much about the sculpture. He was just too shy to admit that he came to see his beautiful boyfriend.

“Well, there’s not much to show you yet. It’s going to take a while to finish it.” Richard opened the door and they both walked in.

Rafael was dumbfounded as soon as he turned the lights on and took a few steps inside.

“What’s wrong? There are no beetles in here.” Richard giggled while he closed the door.

“I thought you said it would take some time to finish.”

“Yes, I said that. Why?”

“I thought you had worked very little, no?”

Rafael pointed an accusing finger at the sculpture that was already quite recognizable.

“I don’t see your point, Rafa. I worked very little on it. I decided to make a small sculpture so that I could finish it before we go to another country and send it back home. But still, so much work left to do.”

“But it looks like you already worked a lot!” Rafael was amazed at the speed of his boyfriend’s work. He didn’t know anything about art but it looked like the French was quite talented.

“You must be really talented, Richie!” Then he muttered something in Spanish about whether he should consider investing in Richard when he retires from tennis.

“I admit that I’ve got fast hands but I don’t think I’m talented.” Richard liked the compliment but didn’t think that he deserved it.

While the French busied himself to serve his guest a glass of orange juice, Rafael was looking at different sketches of his own body.

‘Hum... these are interesting. I didn’t know I looked like this, no?’

The human was sure that his boyfriend had made him look better in his artworks.

‘Well, it’s good to look better so I think I made a good decision to pose for him.’ Rafael chuckled.

“Huh... don’t tell me you’re enjoying a narcissistic moment.” Richard handed him a healthy glass of orange juice and picked up one of the sketches himself.

“Yep, I must have been head over heels for you the other night. I wasn’t objective at all. This doesn’t even look close to you!” Richard stuck his tongue out and teased.

“Oh, you don’t want to tease me like that. I can be very scary.” Rafael did his best to imitate a lion and Richard burst out in laughter.

“It’s supposed to be scary, Richie! Not funny!”

“Oh my... I’ve got tears in my eyes. Was that a baby tiger or something?”

“No, it was a huge lion, the king of the jungle, no?” Rafael put up his best lion roar once again but only made Richard die laughing again.

“That’s not very nice.” The Spaniard hated losing at anything in the world. He didn’t even particularly like losing the coin toss before a tennis match.

As Richard was still laughing with his hands on his stomach, Rafael moved closer to him and tickled his side.

“Hey! Don’t do that! I hate tickling!”

“Is that so?” Rafael grinned mischievously and Richard knew that it was a good time to flee.

Sadly, Richard had only gone two meters when he was caught by some muscles that even had muscles of their own.

“Ahaha, stop it, Rafa!” The French tried hard to avoid those tickling hands but couldn’t quite manage to succeed. The powerful Spaniard had one arm hooked around his waist and it was the other arm that did all the tickling.

“This is too much fun to stop, no?” Rafael was enjoying the sound his boyfriend was making.

“Hey! I could die of tickling! Don’t you read the papers?” Richard was still laughing but managed to send the message to his attacker.

“Someone died of tickling? Sorry for him. But I’ll stop right before you die so don’t worry.”

The scary smile was back on his face and Richard attempted another unsuccessful escape.

“Rafa! I’m really sensitive!”

“That’s why this is fun!”

“You’re cruel!”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you are!”

“It’s normal to like tickling!”

“No, it’s not!”

Richard soon ran out of breath because of all the excessive laughing and yelling so he just turned around and hugged his boyfriend.

Rafael stopped his assaults and raised his eyebrows. “What’s this? You’re giving up?”

“Yes, I give up. I’m waving the white flag.”

“But if you give up, no more fun for me.”

Richard looked up and stared.

“Okay, ok. No more tickling. I don’t want you to get mad and make me break all my strings.”

“Good to know that I can always blackmail you with those strings.” Richard chuckled and put his head on one of Rafael’s shoulders. It was warm and comfortable.

Rafael slowly lied down on the floor with the French still attached to him and started caressing the small back.

Meanwhile, Richard wasn’t sure if he should have hugged his boyfriend in the first place since he could smell Rafael’s scent all too clearly.

‘This is not good. I can feel my mouth watering. He’s not some sort of food. I have to keep thinking about something else.’

But Richard realized that he already had one hand tightening around the side of the human’s neck and jumped up.

“What’s wrong?” Rafael asked, sitting up.

“You should go to bed!”

“Okay... but are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I just thought that I should go back to that sculpture over there. Good night, Rafa.”

Rafael wondered what was really wrong with his boyfriend but he just got to his feet and kissed him good night. Feeling that Richard was a little reluctant to kiss him back, the Spaniard smiled gently before leaving the room.

As soon as the door was closed, Richard sank on the floor.

‘Okay, no excessive hugging from now on until I get used to his scent near me. And no unnecessary kisses too.’

He took a few deep breathes and got up to carry on with his artwork.