Under the magic spell
Title: Under the magic spell
Pairing: Novak Djokovic/Ernests Gulbis
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 3,434
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: Novak is afraid of thunder and Ernests tries to help him fall asleep.
Author’s note: Despite the title, it is not an AU story and this is set in Monte Carlo right after Novak’s third round match. I would like to dedicate this piece to dear jeu_set_match who gave me the idea :)
Boom-
Koong- Brrrroom-
“Ahhck!”
“Ahaha…”
Ernests chuckled yet again at the horrified sound coming from the bedroom. Someone was clearly bothered by the clap of thunder.
He had only found out about his boyfriend’s thunderphobia a few hours ago, after the Serb had come back home with a nice victory. Well aware of the fact that the world number three had to play in the rain, Ernests’ utmost priority was to - well, maybe his second priority, since the first one was obviously to give him a victory kiss - make sure that his boyfriend was warm enough to kick any kind of flu viruses that were lingering around.
So he had played his role as a nice boyfriend, cooking warm soup for dinner, taking a warm bath with him and making him drink a cup of warm milk before giving him a warm hug and an even warmer kiss. He had felt good about his very warm efforts and was pretty sure that the Serb would fall asleep before the peal of thunder could mess with him.
Koong- Brrrroooom-
“Ahhh! Er-nie!!”
Apparently, he was wrong.
Novak burst out of the bedroom with a pillow under his arm, almost jumping on the couch next to his boyfriend.
“Nole, you have a match at noon tomorrow. You have to sleep.”
Ernests caressed the scared boy’s cheek with the back of his hand and laughed a little. He couldn’t get past the fact that Novak was afraid of a simple, dull sound. As far as he was concerned, facing Nadal on clay or hitting a second serve on a break point was ten times scarier.
“I tried to, but I can’t.”
Novak shook his head in case Ernests didn’t hear him clearly because of the thunder that just rolled over their house again.
“And you’re not going to tell me why you’re so scared of it? I could help you if you tell me.”
The Latvian had noticed at dinner that there was something Novak was hiding from him. Either he had a really bad experience concerning thunder or… yeah, he must have had a really bad experience concerning thunder.
“I don’t want to sound weak. You like me strong, don’t you?”
“What? Nole…”
Ernests didn’t like these kinds of moments. He was aware that he could be a bit of a handful for Novak to handle and that the Serb had a strong tendency to protect him as if they were still kids, but he wanted his boyfriend to realize that he won’t leave him just because he was afraid of thunder.
“Look, if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. But don’t think that I’ll judge you even if you have a stupid reason to hate thunder. It hurts.”
It really did. Sometimes Novak didn’t give him enough credit for being sensible and understanding. He had no idea why the Serb would sound so insecure about their relationship at times.
“Sorry, Ernie. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m just… tired of people asking me if we’re still together. I know you love me. I guess the thunder messed with my head.”
“What? Wait a minute. Let’s rewind that. People ask you if we’re still together? Who? Why?”
So far nobody had asked Ernests if the two were still together except for his parents. And, by the tone of Novak’s voice, he could tell that his boyfriend wasn’t talking about his parents.
“Mostly other players.” Novak answered, slightly shivering as the thunder roared even louder.
“I’m sure they’re just asking if we’re doing fine.”
Ernests pulled the pillow from under Novak’s arm and put it on his lap before gesturing to his boyfriend to lie down.
“I don’t think they would’ve added ‘Really? Too bad’ if that was the case.”
“Huh?”
Now this was shocking news. Somebody was waiting for him to disappear so that he could have Novak all for himself. That was simply unacceptable, especially when they were even living together.
“I always knew I’d have serious competition. I’m glad you moved in with me, Ernie. I can definitely sleep better knowing that some other guy’s not calling you late at night. Well, probably except for tonight but that’s all because of that monstrous thunder.”
Novak grunted as he laid his head on the pillow while Ernests was going over what he had just heard.
“Uh, Nole, I think whoever asked that wanted you. That’s why they didn’t ask me and rather you.”
“Nah, I’m sure they’re after you. You’re the cute boy here.”
Novak tugged at the middle of Ernests’ pyjama shirt and the twenty year old instinctively bent forward to meet his boyfriend’s lips.
Koong- Broom-
Even a kiss couldn’t do the job and soon Novak’s face was pressed against Ernests’ belly, probably pretending that he didn’t exist anymore.
“You’re all tense.”
Ernests frowned as his hands travelled up and down the Serb’s shoulders and back. The soothing effect of the bath must have gone already.
“It reminds me of bombs.”
Novak’s voice came out muffled against his abs but Ernests managed to catch what he said.
“Oh…”
Now the Latvian definitely didn’t feel like chuckling. War had never been one of their topics and Ernests didn’t need to know about that part of Novak’s childhood to continue with their wonderful relationship. If the Serb wanted to talk about it, it would be fine. But if he didn't want to talk about it, that would be fine as well.
“What do you want me to do for you?” The younger boy asked while his fingers played with his boyfriend’s hair.
“I don’t know. You don’t happen to know any magic spells to stop it, right?”
The Serb looked up so hopefully that it hurt Ernests to shake his head. Usually, not even usually, it had always been Ernests who talked about mysterious spirits following him on court and sitting on his racquets, making him lose, but for a change, tonight it was Novak who was playing that role.
“Do you want me to boil you some more hot milk?” Ernests shrugged, not able to come up with better ideas.
“Nah, drinking more than one glass might upset my stomach.”
“What about some classic music?”
“I think it's going to annoy me right now.”
“Then, should I sing you a lullaby? But I only know one song in Latvian.”
Ernests stuck out his tongue in embarrassment, realizing that it wasn’t the most brilliant idea.
“Eh, I don’t think you can sing louder than that creepy noise but thanks for the suggestion. You have a lovely voice.”
A bright smile lit the living room and Novak felt a little better. He had such a caring creature by his side. There was nothing he had to be afraid of. It was just an annoying sound coming from the sky.
Still enjoying the spikiness of the hair under his touch, Ernests remembered a conversation that he had with his neighbor a few days ago at the players’ party. Ivan and he had shared the table and the Croatian was talking about how soothing a scalp massage could be, until they had to turn their attention to the stage where Novak was playing a stripper.
“Keek…”
Letting out a strangled laughter, Ernests tried to erase the image of his boyfriend dressed up, or rather dressed down in see-through material and tight, short pieces of cloth. He shouldn’t be thinking about it when his boyfriend was having trouble sleeping.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking about your stripper moves.”
“You liked them, didn’t you?”
“Oh, I think I made myself very clear that night how much I did.”
Of course, Novak remembered the real party after the players’ party two nights ago. Ernests was slowly learning to be patient in bed which made their nights even more electric. Novak could only hope that this patience would soon be transferred on court so that his talented boyfriend could win a decent number of matches.
“You know, Mr. Gulbis… I could always do another lap dance for you.”
Novak offered in a low voice but Ernests rushed him up from his lap.
“Candis, you have to sleep. You’re up against Verdasco tomorrow. He might be sleeping like a baby by now.”
Giggling at the stripper name that kept bringing him back wonderful memories, the Latvian checked the time and realized with a sigh that it was too late to call Ivan’s wife to ask about the scalp massage. Ivan even seemed to believe that it helped him concentrate on court better and that was why he was having a great run recently. Besides, Ernests had agreed when the Croatian had said that a massage was a very intimate activity; it could be another great chance to show Novak how much he loved him and hopefully get rid of that stupid insecurity.
Chu.
Leaving a kiss on his boyfriend’s forehead, the twenty year old got up from the couch and went into the kitchen to fetch his laptop from inside the oven. He liked to keep it there at nights in case there was a robbery. They had a decent security system and Novak kept telling him that robbers probably didn’t need his laptop, but he still liked to put it in there.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to see if there’s any information online.”
Ernests booted his laptop and Novak watched him with an endearing smile. Ernests was always helpful when he was in trouble. Usually it was his job to take care of all the little things that Ernests needed to live through a day, but tonight, he didn't need to do anything else than whine.
Brrooom-
“Ahh…”
Another roll of thunder kicked the Serb out of the living room and soon, he was sitting right next to the Latvian who had just found the piece of information that he had been looking for.
“I found it! Let’s go try it!”
“Try what?”
“Ah, you can find everything on the Internet these days. How convenient.”
Completely ignoring Novak’s words, Ernests beamed while he carried his laptop into the bedroom.
“Oh, you want to give me a head massage.”
Novak realized what his boyfriend’s grand plan was as he laid his head on the pillow with Ernests above him, pressing his temples.
“It isn't a normal head massage. It's called ‘relaxing and healing scalp massage’. Hmm, maybe I should press harder.”
The Latvian put more pressure on his fingers, eyes busy reading the instructions from the laptop screen.
“Ahh!!”
“Oops, maybe not. Sorry.”
Ernests apologized and Novak nodded with a small frown. His head hurt but he wasn’t going to complain about it. He liked the fact that Ernests would even look up information just to help him sleep.
“How does this feel? Any better?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t hurt for a start. Mmm…”
Novak closed his eyes and tried to forget about the thunder. He wanted to win tomorrow’s match even more, now that he was impressed with everything Ernests had done all evening. He had to sleep.
“Try to relax, Nole. Your neck is still stiff.”
Ernests’ soft palm wrapped around the back of the Serb’s neck and Novak couldn’t help but enjoy the cozy feeling. He even thought that they should do this more often. Head or the back of the neck weren’t exactly the spots that got the most attention during their nights and it was good to know that there was still some less touched territory on each other’s body. It felt fresh.
“Um, I’m not sure if you should be giggling like that.”
Ernests’ hands left the head for a moment to scroll down to the next paragraph. The patient was showing a strange reaction to his treatment.
“I’m just enjoying your touch, that’s all.” Novak let out a contented sigh and waited until the warm fingers were back.
“I think you’re good at this, Ernie. It feels great.”
“Really? Or are you just telling me that so I won’t feel bad?”
“Aww, I really mean it, sweetheart.”
It was Ernests’ turn to giggle. He didn’t think that they were the most romantic couple out there but it was nice to hear such sweet words every once in a while.
Koong-
Ernests tensed up, worried that Novak would get stiff again. But much to his relief, the Serb only let out a small grunt and crossed his arms over his chest.
‘Perhaps this really works.’
Happy to have found the right cure, Ernests busied himself trying to match the spots on the drawing to those on his boyfriend’s head.
“I love you, Ernie. Don’t play too much with other boys…”
‘Other boys?’
Ernests thought for a while, wondering if the massage also had some kind of a hypnotizing effect. Novak sounded much more relaxed and if he wasn’t completely imagining things, he sounded a little bit like his younger days back in Munich.
Keeping the exactly same amount of pressure on the exactly same spots, Ernests ventured a question.
“What do you like the most about me?”
It was something that he had always wanted to know the answer to, but had never been able to pluck up the courage. Whatever the answer was going to be, he was planning to strengthen that feature of his to make sure that Novak was out of his rivals’ reach.
“I just like the fact that you’re… you. You’re very unique… irreplaceable at any cost.”
The answer was perfect but Ernests had many more questions to ask.
“Who do you think is my biggest rival?”
“Rival? Hmm… somebody around your ranking. Chardy?”
“Off court, I meant.”
The answer didn’t come right away and Ernests checked if Novak had finally fallen asleep.
“Nobody. As I said, you’re unique.”
He was still awake. Too bad. But it meant that he could probably slip in one more question.
“How many guys have you slept with before you started dating me?”
Novak’s eyes flew open and the twenty year old knew that his happy time was over.
“Don’t push your luck, Ernests. I’m not hypnotized, you know. I’m just a little sleepy.”
“Ah, too bad. Oh, I mean, it’s great! You’re sleepy! Finally!!”
“Yeah, and I could stay that way if you stop yelling.”
Novak closed his eyes, rolled onto his side and patted the spot under the laptop. “Care to join me? I need a warm body to fall asleep with.”
Ernests nodded even if he knew that Novak couldn’t see him; their non-sexual communication had been getting a whole lot better and it was comforting to see such progress with the one he deeply cared about. Putting the laptop back where it belonged, Ernests turned off all the lights in the house which hadn’t done a great job at making Novak feel safe in the thunder and crawled into bed.
Novak’s arms immediately found the younger player’s waist and Ernests closed his eyes. It felt relaxing and healing as if he was the one who had got the massage.
“Your massage was great, Ernie. Thanks.”
The Serb pulled his boyfriend closer and placed a kiss on the soft nape.
“You’re welcome. I hope you don’t wake up with a headache tomorrow.”
“Haha, I’m sure I’ll wake up all fresh, ready to win my match.”
Another kiss landed on the chin and somehow Ernests could tell that he was going to get another one on the lips soon.
“Hehe…”
“What are you giggling about?” Novak asked, hands lazily caressing the slender waist.
“I know I’ll get a goodnight kiss.”
“So?”
“I think we’re reading each other’s mind much better now, don’t you think?”
“Haha, yeah. But we need more training since you had to ask me all those weird questions. You can start guessing the answer to the last one if you’re still curious about it.”
And, without giving Ernests a chance to talk, Novak’s lips found his favorite ones, wishing that it would numb his fear and insecurity. He still hated the awful sound of thunder but he spent a nice, different evening with Ernests because of it.
“Twenty-four.”
Unlike the Serb who forgot about the big question after the kiss, Ernests was very eager to guess.
“What’s twenty-four? Oh… you’re wrong. Who do you think I am?”
Novak gave his boyfriend another short kiss and whispered the right answer in his ear just before he fell asleep. Ernests deserved to know.
Two days later…
Ernests was watching one of the semifinal matches on TV, which was about to end quite shortly. He wasn’t watching the match in Novak’s box as he had planned to, only because he was stupid enough to let that horrible number mess with his head.
‘How could he have fallen asleep after bombing me like that?’
The fuming Latvian had given his boyfriend a cold shoulder for answering so honestly even if he thought that it wasn’t such an indecent number compared to any of the Marat Safins’ out there. And, if he looked at it on the bright side, perhaps that was why he could get maximum pleasure in bed.
‘It’s not like he cheated on me. Just forget about it, Ernie! It all happened in the past and now he’s here with me, safely in my arms!’
He yelled to himself once more and tried to focus on the yellow ball on the TV screen. The match had gone beyond his attention span and having an ugly number on his mind didn’t help.
‘Fine. It’s not working. Let’s rather focus on his legs then.’
To nobody’s surprise, it worked like magic and for a few minutes, Ernests could forget about everything else.
“Game, set, match, Djokovic. Four-six, six-one, six-three.”
Thanks to the umpire who was doing his job properly, Ernests realized that his boyfriend had won his match, meaning that…
“Oh my god! He’s going into the final!! Oh my god!! Another Masters final! Yipee!!”
Jumping up and down with a cushion in each hand, he was relieved that he was home alone. Nobody else needed to see him this overjoyed.
‘Ah, I love you, baby, and I'm so proud of you!!’
Talking to Novak in his mind, Ernests stepped closer to the TV just in time to see his boyfriend draw something on the middle of the court.
‘Oh, Nole…’
There was a pretty heart on the ground and Ernests knew that it was for him, and him only.
Novak tipped the cab driver and put on a smile as he saw his home sweet home. He was hoping that Ernests would be in a better mood today. He didn’t say sorry because he hadn’t done anything wrong but he had considered apologizing all day, since a day wasn’t fun enough with an upset Ernests around.
‘What is that? A warning sign?’
Noticing that a piece of paper was taped to the front door, Novak quickly made his way to the porch, only to find out that it was a picture of him drawing the last bit of the heart.
‘Aww, those photo sites are so fast these days.’
He could see that Ernests had tried to draw a nice heart with a red pen under the picture which made Novak burst into laughter.
“Ahahaha, what a one-sided heart. How cute though.”
He took the paper off the door and realized that there was an arrow at the bottom of it that gestured him to turn it over. There was a short message scribbled on the back.
Dear winner,
Since I suck at drawing beautiful hearts, I’d like to show you how I feel about this win in my usual way. I’ll be waiting for you somewhere in the house. Don’t make me wait too long!
- Lots and lots of love, Ernie.
‘Wow, I could definitely use more finals.’
He was not only forgiven but even invited.
‘I’ll be damned if I miss this chance. I’m coming, Ernie!’
Novak carefully folded the precious piece of paper and rushed into the house. He had lots and lots of hearts to draw on a certain body.