Hotel Ferrero (Chapter 39)
Title: Hotel Ferrero
Pairings: Djokovic/Roddick, Ferrero/Safin, Federer/Moya
Other characters: Ancic, Tipsarevic, Baghdatis
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Vampires, mentions of drinking blood.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: The couples say goodbye in their own ways while Mario and Marcos have a hard time because of their boss.
Author's note: Sorry for the long wait :)
From the previous chapter:
Andy and Novak had tried on couple bat pajamas while an injured Rafael had enjoyed the hotel spa with his boyfriend. Andrew had paid Tim a visit and had stayed for tea while Juan Carlos had taken Marat and Richard out for lunch.
Chapter 39: The perfect timing
Novak was watching his boyfriend pack his bags in silence. He had already finished packing his own and now it felt real that he wasn’t going to see the stunning American for a good two months or so.
“Aww, don’t give me that look, kid.”
“What look?”
“I’m not leaving you.” Andy pushed his bag away and opened his arms so the vampire would fly into them.
Soon enough, he had an armful of warm flesh and he knew that he was going to miss these moments.
“For once, I’m glad that the tennis off-season is quite short.” The human chuckled and saw Novak nod in agreement.
“Nole, promise me you’ll only drink ugly grannies while I’m gone.” Andy caressed the back of Novak’s neck.
“I don’t drink grannies. They need all the blood to live through another day.” The Serb pictured himself drinking ladies in their eighties and shivered.
“So you’re telling me that you’re going to drink young and hotter guys behind my back?”
“Ahaha, who knows?”
Novak stuck out his tongue and Andy liked the fact that his boyfriend was smiling again. He didn’t want to leave with a sad Novak in his mind.
“I bet you’re happy that you won’t have to sleep in a coffin for a while.” The vampire looked into his boyfriend’s eyes.
“If I tell mom that I actually slept in one of those, she’ll freak out. Maybe I can get you a picture of her so that we can have a good laugh.”
Novak tensed a little at the mention of Andy’s mother. He wasn’t sure if Andy had told his parents about him.
“Does your mother know about me?”
“Not yet but I’m planning to tell her as soon as I get back home. She always said that I should let her know if the serious one comes around. I didn’t tell her yet, since otherwise she’d be all over me and I didn’t need that during the season.”
“Do you think she won’t like me, perhaps?”
“Because you’re a vamp?”
“Yeah.”
“Nah, the other day, she even said that as long as I bring a good one, she wouldn’t mind even if it’s an alien, so I think she’ll be just fine with you.”
Andy pressed his lips against his vampire’s forehead and felt him relax again.
“Does yours know about me?” It was his turn to ask.
Novak shook his head. “Not yet either. Since she can’t fly, she’s basically lived in that same vampire village for centuries. She’s only met a small number of humans that live near that area.”
“She doesn’t like humans?”
“Uh… actually, it’s the other way around.”
Novak blushed a little. “I’m afraid that she might get all excited to meet such a good-looking human and want to drink you.”
“Ahaha, that sounds dangerous. Giving my neck to my boyfriend’s mother.”
“Yeah, that’s something that should never happen.”
“Well, in case, she gets angry when I say no to her and bans me to touch her son, I should take full advantage of the current situation.”
Before Novak could even register the words, a hand was firmly inside his bat pajama pants.
“Andy…”
“Maybe I can finally show off my arm power tonight.”
“Oh, you and your obsession with physical strength.”
“Hey, I don’t go to the gym and lift that crazily heavy stuff for nothing.”
“In case you forgot, you’re a professional tennis player. You’re supposed to work hard for your arms.”
“Well, that’s just a healthy bonus, then.”
Novak laughed at the answer but hung onto the human’s neck as he found himself lifted up against the wall.
“I wish you could move this fast on cour… ouch!”
The American had relentlessly pinched his butt but Novak wasn’t going to complain. He wanted to enjoy the last couple of hours that he had with his boyfriend.
“You know, we always have phones and webcams.” Andy pressed the vampire harder against the wall.
“Which means?”
“Which means that we’ll still be able to enjoy highly pleasurable stuff together.”
“Ah, but it’ll never feel this real.” Novak pouted.
“Yeah, so we’ll have to enjoy the few hours left now.” Andy didn’t waste another second and got rid of the annoying pajamas.
Neither Novak nor he would forget about this night, Andy was going to make sure of it.
“Love you so much, Andy. I really do.” The vampire’s eyes displayed the darkest green that the human had ever seen and it was impossibly hot.
“Love you too, kid.”
And, he was going to show just how much he loved the blessed creature in his arms.
Another couple was saying goodbye in the same hotel, but in a much calmer way. Roger and Carlos had been through enough off-seasons together, not to shed a tear or exchange fluffy love words.
“Did you pack your toothbrush? You often forget it.” Roger pointed out.
“I didn’t forget it this time.” Carlos answered, checking if he had everything packed.
“Well, we have about… two hours before we head to the airport then.” Roger glanced at his watch and sat down on the couch.
The Spaniard joined him and put an arm around his Swiss. He liked the fact that Roger instinctively leaned into his arms in a heartbeat.
“Rog, I’m sorry that your mother isn’t doing well.” Carlos caressed his lover’s arms as softly as possible, hoping that his touches would soothe him.
“Thanks. But she told me this morning that she’s been doing much better. I’m so relieved to hear that, you know.”
Roger’s mother was at the hospital with some liver problems at the moment and Roger had been quite shocked to hear the news a few days ago.
“You’ll get to see her in no time. Shanghai will past fast and by then, I’m sure she’ll be healthy, welcoming you back home.”
“I hope so. It’s sad to see your parents grow old when you still feel like they’re so much bigger than you.”
“I can only imagine.”
“Ouch, sorry, hon. I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”
The human quickly apologized, realizing that he might have brought back bad memories to his lover. Carlos’ parents had left the world even before he would have felt them grow old.
“It’s okay. I’m over it. I’m more worried about you.” Carlos kissed the Swiss on the cheek and felt him shiver.
“What is it?”
“I told her that maybe she was sick because of me.” Roger’s voice was small and weak.
“Nonsense.”
“That was what she said too.”
“She’s right. You didn’t make her sick. Why would you even think that?” Carlos hugged his lover tighter.
“Well, she was very concerned at the beginning of the year when I was sick and couldn’t find out the reason to it. Then when I told her that it was mono, she was even more worried. And, as we both know, she always had problems with me living with you and since my tennis season hasn’t been one of the brightest ones, I’m sure that troubled her even further.” Roger almost finished his words in one breath, feeling extremely guilty.
“Roger, every mother worries about her son like that. And, since she’s the mother of such a great champion, I think you have to give her more credit for her mental strength. Where do you think you got that toughness from?”
Carlos didn’t stop placing warm kisses on the Swiss’ face and was relieved to hear him breathe normally again.
“I’m telling you, Roger, you have nothing to do with her illness. And, it’s nothing too serious, thank god, so let’s hope that she’ll be released from the hospital very soon.”
Roger nodded, knowing that Carlos might be right. It didn’t seem rational to think about him being the sole factor that led to his mother’s illness.
“Oh, she mentioned you this morning. I totally forgot.”
Now it was Carlos’ turn to tense. “She did?”
“Yes, Diana must’ve given her that night cream of hers. And since mom kept saying how wonderfully it was wrapped, I think we can safely assume that she wrapped it properly again.”
Hearing Roger giggle, Carlos felt much better. “So she mentioned me in a good way or in a bad way?” That was the important part.
“In a better way than before, I must say. She’s not easily impressed with gifts but since she’s become weaker, it must’ve pleased her to some extent. I think the timing was good.” Roger carefully analyzed the situation.
“Well, she never liked all the other gifts I sent her in the past, remember?”
“Sure, I do. How could I forget?”
Roger kissed the vampire on the lips and his mind gave him a quick review of all the presents that Carlos had given to his mother; of course, starting with flowers, jewelry, antique, a refrigerator, a car and plenty of cosmetics and scarves in between.
“Hmm, there must be something else than a simple night cream. She had even turned down that beautiful silver Porsche! And, talking about beauty, where is that photo album with all our pictures in it? I wanted to have a look the other day and couldn’t find it in your bag.” Carlos rubbed his chin and waited for an answer.
“Oh, about that…”
“Don’t tell me you lost it somewhere.”
“Of course not.” Roger’s answer was firm.
“Good. Then where did you put it?”
“I sent it back home to mom so she can see for herself how happy we look together.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ, there are even photos of us naked in there!!”
“Relax, hon. I took care of those before sending the whole album. You should have more faith in me, you know.” Roger giggled and pointed at the safety box.
“You put our naked pictures in there?” Carlos raised his eyebrows in amusement.
“Yes, since it’s called a safety box, I figured that it would be the safest place.”
Carlos chuckled, “So it must be that photo album that made her appreciate my gift, then.”
“I hope so. We tried to show her how much we care about each other right in front of her, but it had never really worked. So I thought that maybe if she doesn’t see you in person and get enough time to study the pictures, it might work better. But I still think the timing helped, you know, even though it kills me to see her sick like that.”
“Good game plan, you beautiful genius.”
Carlos pinched the Swiss on the cheek, glad to hear that Roger’s mother might have a better image of him. “Don’t worry, Roger. She’s a strong woman. She’ll be as healthy as before when you fly back home after the Masters Cup, okay?”
“Okay. And, don’t worry about me or my mom. I’d rather like you to concentrate more on the Olympics. I’m expecting a medal from you, mister.” Roger poked the hard chest and smiled as he felt Carlos give him another kiss on the top of his head.
“And, I just came up with an idea of giving you the support you’ll need.” Roger’s eyes were bright and Carlos laughed.
“What a one-sided mind, Roger. Kinky.”
“Hey, you’re the kinky one here. I wasn’t talking about sex, you know.”
“You weren’t? Aww, I’m disappointed!”
“I was rather thinking about something even sexier.” The human brought his lover’s fingers to his neck.
“Won’t it be the perfect way to celebrate a hard-fought season and to give you the strength you’ll need?”
Roger knew that since Carlos had already tasted his blood before, there was no way that he could resist his offer.
“My neck feels incredibly soft tonight, don’t you think?”
Carlos nodded absent-mindedly, his eyes already turning into dark green. He wanted a piece of that neck.
“Now think about how lovely it would feel if you put your fangs in here. You took me out to a delicious dinner tonight so I bet my blood will be a meal from Heaven.”
It took a lot for the Swiss not to laugh at his own words; he sounded horribly arrogant, praising the taste of his own blood but he could see that Carlos couldn’t care less about it. The vampire’s eyes were firmly fixed on a special spot on his neck.
‘Good. Now he needs one last push.’
“Uh, Rog, I appreciate the gesture but I thought we agreed that I’d only drink you once a year, on my birthday.”
“I only agreed to that because you were unbelievably stubborn. But now, I feel like you could enjoy more of me, you know. No more fear about drinking me, right?”
Carlos nodded, still trying his best not to jump on the slender neck in sight.
“Carlos, look at me. Just drink when you want to. I won’t care. I trust you too much to care. Okay?”
“Roger…”
“Answer me.”
“Okay.”
“Good, now let me grab that rainbow again while you drink me.”
As Roger felt himself get hypnotized by the intense gaze from his lover, he lay back comfortably against the couch. He was excited.
Carlos made sure that he had kissed every part of Roger’s neck before he dug his fangs in. He was still guilty of drinking the human but he knew that it was an issue that they would have to work out in the future.
An indescribable taste of blood rushed into his mouth and this time, Carlos was determined to count the seconds and not lose himself in the immense pleasure. Roger wasn’t like other victims that he drank from the street. He was the special one that needed the appropriate amount of attention and care.
‘I love you, Roger Federer.’
Carlos hoped that Roger could feel his heart ache for him. He wanted to show the human how much he adored and admired him. And, when he looked up, he could tell that Roger got it. The beautiful Swiss was smiling ever so peacefully, fully enjoying the moment.
Mario, the ever so busy assistant, was tapping his fingers against his mahogany desk rather restlessly when Janko knocked and peeped inside the room.
“Hey, I’m taking a short break. You want some coffee?”
The Serb already had two cups of coffee in his hand, which made Mario chuckle and invite him in.
“You’re already seeing Tommy Haas and you’re still nice to me?”
“Aww, I’m still nice to you because you haven’t gotten laid, my dear!”
“Hey, get out of the room right now.” Mario joked but the words did stab him in the ribs.
“Well, it’s not my fault that you didn’t jump him.” Janko rolled his eyes and handed a cup of coffee to his friend.
“Janko, I don’t drink lattes. I only drink Frappuccinos.” Mario frowned but Janko only smiled.
“Apparently, drinking Frappuccinos didn’t do you any good. I’d say it’s about time to change your luck and stick with lattes.”
The Croatian shook his head and took a sip. It wasn’t as bad as he had expected.
“See? Not too bad, huh? How great of a friend am I?”
“Shut up.”
“Ooh, bad word, Mario. Bad word!”
Mario shot a death glare towards the Serb’s direction but Janko still smiled. He had spent a fantastic night with his new boyfriend Tommy before they had to come back to Europe and the two have been enjoying all sorts of dirty conversations on the phone ever since. Besides, he was even going to spend the Christmas season with the German by using his two-week vacation.
“Oh, since you were the one that helped me too meet my stunning vampire, I did a little something to help you out.”
Mario suddenly had a feeling that he didn’t want to know about that little something. Of course, he knew that Janko wouldn’t do extreme things such as Marcos, for instance, but somehow he didn’t have a good feeling.
“Oh, Marcos helped me with the idea, just so you know. Give him full credit rather than to me.”
Now the world’s best assistant could safely assume that he was in trouble.
“What did you guys do?”
And, the answer came though his cell phone right away.
“What a great timing!” Janko chuckled while Mario checked his messages and went white.
You did? Too bad it was a dream. I could’ve given you a real bj if you were here - T.R.
“What the heck did you do with my phone?”
Mario looked through the category in his phone where the sent messages were kept.
“Oh my dear lord, you did not send these!!”
There were inappropriate messages of how he had been having these wet dreams about Tommy and how horny he felt just thinking about the Spaniard.
Mario’s face became redder and redder as he went through more and more text messages. He didn’t know which was more shocking; the fact that his friends were aware of his wet dreams or the fact that Tommy didn’t even doubt that the messages had been tampered.
‘I put those sheets in the washing machine myself. There’s no way they could’ve known about my dreams. And, they were so not about Tommy, so I guess it’s just a coincidence.’
Mario pushed away the thoughts of another Spaniard and shuddered at the awful reality.
“What am I going to do now?”
“Well, you could try phone sex with him, like a fun preview.” Janko answered in his most serious voice.
“I’m serious! And, why would you do such a thing?”
“So you could enjoy the benefit of having a boyfriend! You finally got over boss and I’m glad that you did! It’s about time that you take the next step and say bye-bye forever to Juanqui!”
“So you thought that these messages will help me sleep with Tommy?”
“Yeah, I thought that he’d be crazy enough about you to fly over if he knew that you could talk dirty. Can you even imagine how thrilled he must be by now?”
“No, I can’t.”
Mario felt his head hurt. He had been going through some rough nights, dreaming about the guy that he thought he had moved on from. And, Juan Carlos overworking to his limit meant that there were even more work for Mario to handle.
Besides, it was true that Tommy and he were taking baby steps into a relationship every single day. They talked at least half an hour on the phone every morning and Tommy had sent him hilarious pictures just to make Mario laugh.
‘But then, why am I not dreaming about him?’ Mario was still confused at the guy in his dreams.
‘Do I want both of them?’
He couldn’t really tell. There certainly was something that was highly attractive in the other Spaniard, something that Juan Carlos didn’t possess. It was difficult to point it out but the two did have quite different appeals.
‘Oh, thinking about Juanqui, I have to get a couple of signatures from him.’
The assistant drank a little bit more of his coffee and looked at the bodyguard who was giggling at him.
“What’s so funny?”
“Your face is. You could’ve been a decent actor, I think.”
“Well, as for now, I’m stuck with all this work here, so I’d better go see Juanqui and get some signatures.” Mario got up from his desk and gathered a handful of documents.
“Oh, Marcos will be in there. Unless he made his talk incredibly short.”
Janko remembered why he had gotten the chance to take a break. As soon as Marcos went inside the office, Marat had told him that he would cover for him. It had sounded suspicious since the Russian had never liked to cover for him, but Janko thought that it was one of those incredibly lucky days.
“What is Marcos doing in there? I thought he didn’t even sleep much, all obsessed with that new herb of his. What’s so special about it anyway?” Mario hadn’t had enough time to talk to the chef, but from what he had heard, the Cypriot was spending way too much time on his research.
“I don’t know much but it sounded like some sort of a too powerful Viagra.”
“What? You must’ve heard wrong.” The Croatian started laughing.
“No, I swear he said something about hormones exploding.”
“Wait a minute. Didn’t he want to name it after Richie?”
“Oh, you’re right. He did!”
“And he’s with Juanqui now?”
The two exchanged startled looks and ran out of the room.
Meanwhile, Marat was enjoying the yells and pleas that were coming from the office. He had no intention whatsoever to stop the violence or to help the poor cook. His job was to protect his boss in case of danger and as far as he could tell, Juan Carlos wasn’t the one in danger in there.
‘That’s why life is all about the right timing. You stay patient enough, your opponent will hand you a double fault.’
The Russian nodded and reminisced about the past few days. His lover was still overworking and was still obsessed with Richard’s personal life. Marat knew that the Spaniard was trying his very best not to put a hidden camera in Richard’s room and not to kick Rafael Nadal out of the hotel. He had appreciated Juan Carlos’ effort to stay sane but that didn’t mean that Marat could stand the same story about Richard over and over again.
‘Hmm, maybe that’s why he’s spending more time with Mario these days. I’m sure discussing the same business and getting signatures don’t take that much time.’
Marat thought that it was for the best. He wasn’t worried or jealous at all. In fact, if Mario could actually listen to all those boring stories, he even thought that the Croatian should get a big bonus.
Bang.
Another loud noise came from the office and Marat couldn’t stop chuckling. He did feel a little bad for Marcos but the Russian was too happy to see Juan Carlos take out his frustration and anger on someone else other than him.
‘I hope all that throwing will do him some good. Maybe he’ll be a bit more eager in bed in the morning.’
Rubbing his hands in anticipation, he saw Mario and Janko run up the stairs.
“Move!” Mario didn’t bother to knock and flung the door open. “Boss!!”
Thankfully, Janko had caught the magic cube that was flying in his direction, just as he entered the office.
The two looked around and saw Marcos trembling with his head in his hands on the couch while there were broken pens and giant paper clips near the wall.
“Boss, you’ve got to calm down.” Mario swiftly prepared a glass full of rich blood and gently massaged the Spaniard’s temples as he gulped down his drink in one breath.
“I need one more.”
“Right away, boss. And, if I may dare say a word, I think you could use a day or two off.”
He could feel the glare on his cheek but pretended not to feel it and handed over another glass of blood.
“I’m fine, Mario. I have no problem working.”
Mario figured that this was probably not the best time to press the issue, so he just nodded.
“Sorry, boss. I’m sure you know what’s best for you. Here, I need your signatures on these.”
Juan Carlos finished his second glass rather hastily and picked up the last pen standing. He knew that whenever his life was giving him trouble, he could find peace in his work.
“Ok, I’ll just sign them without reading. I trust you enough.”
“Thank you, boss. There’s nothing in there that we haven’t already talked about.”
“Fine. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you, Mario.”
Mario assisted his boss by flipping the pages at the right time so that the Spaniard wouldn’t have to bother about unimportant things. He knew that his boss had been recently pushing his own limits in many ways.
‘If only he’d take my advice and get some rest…’
Then, he started wondering what the so-called lover was doing for the Spaniard.
‘If only he’d slap himself and behave properly.’
Mario was aware that Marat had been behaving much better than the early days but obviously, it wasn’t enough in his eyes.
However, Marcos was drinking his own share of blood as he rattled away about how Juan Carlos had been all angry when he told him about the new herb.
“So, it’s like Viagra?” Marat was amused, even if he had personally never felt the necessity of such a thing.
“Well, it can be used as Viagra but that wasn’t my point! He started throwing things even before I had finished my words!”
“Then, what was your point? You know that he wouldn’t like Richie’s name on something like Viagra.” Janko patted his colleague on the back.
“Of course, I know he wouldn’t like that. The whole staff here knows about boss’ bad mood these days.” Marcos took a deep breath and added, “You know that I did experiments mixing that herb with Rosemary’s leaves, right?”
“Yes, I think you told me so.” Janko nodded.
“Well, if I use seven Rosemary leaves and three leaves of the new herb, I found out, thanks to that crazy witch lab, that the liquid could be used as a medicine to help those who can’t drink properly. Rosemary naturally has some healing powers and even people use it to take care of headaches, flues, and neuralgia.”
As a difficult word came out of the cook’s mouth, the two bodyguards’ face dropped. They just wanted to hear about the Viagra part.
“So it’s not Viagra?” Marat was confused.
“If I use more of the new herb and less Rosemary, it can act as Viagra.”
“Marcos, did you talk about Viagra first when you confronted boss?” Janko was curious.
“No, of course not! I told him that I might have found something to help Richie drink! He was so glad to hear about it. So I told him about the successful clinical trials, which I still don’t have an idea of how fast those witches finished, maybe they used their scary magic and shortened the process, anyway, boss was thrilled to hear the news!”
“Then?” Janko asked.
“Then, he asked if there was any kind of side-effects.”
“And?” Marat asked.
“And… I told him the truth. Uh, you can get pretty horny after drinking it for the next twenty-four hours or so.” Marcos pouted, still not convinced if this piece of information had to make him suffer that much.
“Ouch.”
“Indeed.” Marat agreed.
“So he was mad because of the side-effects? Thinking that it will make Richie’s sexual life more colorful?” Janko tried his best not to picture an exploding Juan Carlos.
“Well, he also asked if Richie knew about this. And, he warned me not to tell him anything until the side-effects could be taken care of. But the problem was that Richie already knew about this! I swear I didn’t mean to tell him but he kind of walked in when I was getting off the phone with the pharmaceutical company!”
Marcos was repeating the story that he had told his boss a couple of minutes ago.
“Oh, you’re so dead, my friend.” Janko let out a sigh.
“I know!! And what the heck did I discover?”
The desperate cook pulled his hair with his own hands and let out an exhausted sigh. Life was not going to be easy for him.