fic: Growing Pains [Deco, Leo Messi] (gen, PG)

[stickmarionette]

Title: Growing Pains
Characters: Deco, Leo Messi (and tiny cameos by other FC Barcelona players, staff and Jose Mourinho)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not true.
Summary: Okay, so. Leo's actually 19 now. Deco should possibly stop thinking of him as a kid. It's just hard to remember, sometimes. Deco quietly freaks out about the person Leo's turning

Comments

[dfotw]

This is amazing... honestly, truly amazing.

You have great insight, not only on what it takes to be a footballer, but on what kinds of reactions this can elicit on different personalities. The characterizations are flawless, the dialogue is smooth, the setting is absolutely realistic...

An amazing fic. Thank you for sharing it!

::adds to memories::

[iamyourmind]

This fic is unbelievable. It's been a while since I've read a fic that really got to me. I't s like you know them, can look inside their heads.
Amazing piece of work, thank you so much for sharing.

[colourreporter]

Finally! It would not be too strong to say that I have been saving this up all through a long and complicated week.

He used to be that stubborn bastard.

OKAY, YOU BROKE ME.

I think one of the things I love about your fic in general is that people, you know, change, but their changing isn't in any way divorced from who they were and where they've been, and that's pretty unusual in fic, and for some reason even more so in fic about Leo, Y? But this is so gorgeous and sad and sweet and, ultimately, probably in pretty much every respect true- and seriously, Deco wanting to preserve Leo's innocence: again, ouch.

Just wonderful, plus all the lovely little Barca details (LOL Xavi) and really, DECO. I wish Guus had been generous enough to bring him on for a moment the other night, because there's something in me that thinks he might have needed it . . .

[guede_mazaka]

At first I was going to say something about Messi, and how incisively you look at him and how plausibly as well, how this effortlessly seems to open up his media-bland persona. But the more I think about it, the less it's about Messi and the more it's about Barcelona, period. As usual with your stories. The craziness and what it does to a person, what you have to be to survive in such a place. Deco is the perfect narrator for this kind of story; he's smart enough, and also he's just far enough on that side of screw-up to see what others don't.

[tall_tree]

Wonderful character piece. And the Deco POV! His weary voice, so very resigned while Leo is so hungry. Ouch, Deco, ouch.