Competition never ends
Title: Competition never ends
Pairing: Ernests Gulbis/Novak Djokovic
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,045
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: Ernests doesn’t like Novak’s new dog.
Author’s note: This is a short Nolernie piece, dedicated to dear agua21, inspired by the lovely idea notebook she gave me. Thank you so much, sweetie. It was such a heartwarming gift =D And, as always, many thanks to my dear beta reader crystaleyesd :)
“Aww, Ernie, isn’t he all cute?”
At his boyfriend’s question together with the voice that he used to ask the question, Ernests had his eyes narrowed and lips closed tightly. He had to think about something peaceful so that his skyrocketing blood pressure wouldn’t kill him.
‘Let’s think about yummy cupcakes and pretty trophies.’
Unfortunately, it didn’t help much since he couldn’t enjoy either of them right now.
“Aww, aren’t you the sweetest thing in the world?”
Ernests’ attention snapped back to where the horrendous scene was taking place. Novak was holding one of the dog’s paws and the stupid dog was on his lap, licking his nose.
‘I thought I was the sweetest thing in the world and I was the only one who could sit on his lap and lick his nose.’
The Latvian’s frown got fiercer and fiercer as Novak’s face grew brighter and brighter.
‘And I thought my torturous days were over when Gasquet got himself a new boyfriend.’
Ernests sighed and got up from the couch, feeling as if he was invisible to his own boyfriend.
‘What kind of name is Pierre for a dog? Is it gay and French?’
He was sure that he was going to hate all the Pierres he would meet for the rest of his life and he didn’t want to think of anything gay and French, having had enough with a certain French gay.
‘It’s like Gasquet no.2! Well, at least Nole can’t say that he likes its accent.’
Opening the refrigerator to pour himself a cold glass of lemonade, Ernests looked back at the past five days. The dog had arrived at their doorstep on a sunny Monday morning, ruining his perfect mood. Having no official training or practice on weekends, Novak and he used to spend a decent amount of time on different surfaces of the house from Friday evening to Sunday night, working on their fitness in a very intimate way. The past weekend had been no different and Ernests had gotten to discover a new level of pleasure and was about to talk about it while rubbing his cheek against Novak’s chest when his boyfriend had to get up and answer the door.
Gulp.
The Latvian drank down the tall glass of lemonade and his eyes landed on the calendar that occupied a place on the kitchen wall.
‘Ah, it’s Friday today. I wonder if he’ll stick to our routines or spend the weekend with that ugly, barking monster. Couldn’t his fan club get him something else? Something like… cushions or slippers or… I don’t know, something unlovable.’
He checked the refrigerator to see if he had any emergency chocolate left.
“Damn!”
He slammed the refrigerator door and sat at the dining table. Running his hand on the middle of the table made him calm down a little, memories of what had happened on that particular spot on Saturday evening flooding his mind. Novak was incredibly strong despite his rather slim frame. He had thought that he would be too heavy for the Serb to lift, but he had been proved wrong that day. Or perhaps it was the adrenaline that made the job easier but anyway, the point was that Ernests had been pleasantly surprised.
“Ernie?”
Ernests couldn’t believe his ears.
‘Did he really call my humble name and not his Highness’?’ He felt like laughing.
“Ernie? Where are you?”
“I’m in the kitchen. You want something?”
Novak appeared in the kitchen with the dog in his arms and a frown automatically found its place on Ernests’ pretty forehead.
“I’m going to get some toys for Pierre. You want to tag along?”
“Tag along?”
Ernests didn’t like how Novak phrased the question. If anything had to tag along, it had to be the dog, not him. He was a human being and the dog was just a dog.
“Uh… are you alright?”
“Did you just ask me if I was alright?” He snapped.
“Yeah. You keep asking me back.”
Ernests was about to wag his finger and spit out swear words when he felt Novak’s lips on top of his head.
“A peck isn’t good enough anymore!”
He yelled in Novak’s face and stomped out of the kitchen. There was no way he was going to join the Serb on his overwhelming quest to procure dog food. It was simply a waste of time.
“I love you too!”
Novak shouted back and tried not to laugh too loud. He was aware of all the jealous vibe his young boyfriend has been sending him and he did seriously consider the option of stopping ignoring him and making him feel left out but the pouty face was too cute to drop the act.
‘I’m impressed that he has lasted five days already! I was thinking two and a half max.’
Planning to get a nice gift for the patient cutie before getting Pierre unnecessary dog food, Novak scribbled a note and left it on the kitchen table.
After a quick nap that soothed his anger, Ernests rubbed his eyes only to find out that Novak hadn’t returned home yet.
‘He must be on a private plane headed to South Africa to buy some diamond-encrusted dog food.’
Horrified by his own conclusion, he walked into the kitchen to get some lunch and found a note.
Ernie,
I’m going to get Pierre some food and grab a bite with Tomas who wanted to meet the cutie. Will go straight to practice so have a nice day and see you around dinner time.
- Nole
Ernests felt sad. The notes that he got usually started with ‘Dear Ernie’ or ‘My lovely Ernie’ and ended with ‘Love, Nole’ or ‘Yours only, Nole’ but this note didn’t contain any of them.
‘I should get rid of that dog.’
Being a well-educated young man, he knew that it was wrong to torture or kill a living creature and he was familiar with the term ‘animal welfare’.
‘Then what else can I possibly do?’
He was going to wrack his brains while he was on the practice court. Perhaps he could ask his new coach Gumy and borrow some useful ideas.
Alas! It turned out that Gumy was a sucker for little puppies and begged Ernests to show him a picture of Pierre at their next practice session. He didn’t even listen to the player telling him that the dog would be long gone by next Monday in one way or another and he couldn’t stop making weird doggy sounds.
So after practice, Ernests was left with no awesome idea to get rid of the dog and he was more irritated than before because his coach kept asking him questions about the white, furry monster.
‘This is unbelievable. It’s just a dog! Why is everybody awing at it and why am I so jealous of it?’
He remembered how the dog’s eyes had pity towards him when Novak patted it on the head and then kissed it on the cheek with so much affection.
‘That yucky dog! I’m going to make sure it won’t be in my sight by Monday!’
Ernests slammed one of his racquets into the empty umpire chair and left the court. He was red-hot angry.
‘Ack…’
Novak bit the inside of his mouth, trying hard not to laugh. He was at the dinner table with his new dog and his beloved boyfriend who seemed to be busy killing the dog with his eyes.
‘And I thought he grew out of the jealousy phase sometime around this spring. Not that I mind seeing those puffy cheeks and lovely lips sticking out like that. Ah, how kissable they are…’
He thought about letting the dog leave his arms so that he could kiss the jealous boy but he was anxious to find out how much longer Ernests could stand the situation.
‘I shouldn’t be experimenting like this with my boyfriend. I already know how much he loves me.’
Now he really wanted to kiss Ernests. His lips looked like delicious cotton candy and it had been days that he had kissed them properly.
“Nole?”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you drooling? If you’re that hungry, just eat. There’s more chicken left, Jesus.”
Novak looked down at his plate and wondered when he had finished his chicken. Perhaps Pierre ate some of it while he was enjoying a jealous Ernests. He got up from his chair and headed towards the stove when he heard a fork hit the floor.
“Is everything okay there?”
“Yeah. I just dropped my fork.” Ernests answered, feeling horrible that the sneaky dog dodged the silverware.
He tried again with his spoon and cursed under his breath when he realized that he was too nice to try a third time with his knife.
‘Ah, he’s terribly adorable.’ Novak thought as he filled his plate with more chicken.
The Latvian had cooked delicious dinner probably to get some love back; Novak was sure that he only got to love him more after the dog came into the picture but sadly, Ernests didn’t know that. The Serb could sense that Ernests was close to breaking down and he couldn’t wait to have his dear boy in his arms again.
‘I wonder what kind of punishments he has for me in mind. I hope my gift doesn’t freak him out. A little exploring shouldn’t hurt.’
Just when Novak was about to open the refrigerator to grab a beer, he heard a tray hit something which didn’t sound like the floor.
“Ernie?”
“It’s nothing! I dropped the tray, that’s all. Everything’s so slippery today.”
Ernests borrowed Novak’s fork and continued to eat as if nothing had happened.
Having checked that Pierre didn’t get hit too badly, Novak returned to the table with two bottles of beer and a new fork for himself. No matter how much fun he was having, it would have to end tonight; he didn’t want either Ernests or the dog to risk any kind of injuries.
“The chicken is delicious, Ernie. I didn’t know you could cook so well.”
Ernests looked up from his plate with guilty eyes and Novak wished that they could skip dinner and repeat Saturday night fever right on the same table.
“Tha… thanks. I’ll try to cook more often.”
The twenty one year old’s voice became smaller and smaller and Novak couldn’t resist placing a kiss on top of the curls. He wondered whose soul Ernests tortured with his puppy eyes to get such a decent amount of home-made chicken in such short notice.
‘Probably Aida or Mario. God bless whoever it is.’ Novak prayed and picked up his fork again.
In an attempt to calm himself down and get a hold of his anger, Ernests had locked himself up in the study room after dinner and had been playing vintage Pacman like a hyper kid. While Novak was on the phone with Marian, he had accidentally stepped on the dog’s paw and had reluctantly pinched its tail but the dog had been far from being gone. All he could do afterwards was to play the computer game that he played best and feel better about his life.
‘What! I played two hours already?’
Rubbing his eyes to check if he had read the time wrong, Ernests turned off his computer and walked out to the living room. Strangely enough, the space was empty.
‘Maybe he took the dog out for a walk.’
Ernests checked if the dog’s collar was on the shelf next to the door. It was there and so were Novak’s running shoes in their usual place.
‘Where the heck is he then?’
It was then that he heard a splash of water coming from the bathroom.
‘Oh no. He is not washing that filthy dog in our special bathtub!’
He ripped the bathroom door open and saw Novak covered with bubbles inside the tub with the impossibly hateful dog.
“Novak Djokovic!!”
Pierre should have known that Ernests had special affection towards the bathtub. It wasn’t a random tub that was a part of the house when they moved in; one of the first things that Ernests had done as soon as they had bought the house was to renovate the bathtub so that Novak and he could have more space together inside it. It was their special tub and many pages of their history were written in it.
“You… you!”
Ernests couldn’t think of any appropriate words to yell. Anger was boiling throughout his system, making him difficult to think.
Thanks to all that anger, the Serb got to watch a very intense strip show that involved a curly head getting stuck in a T-shirt and swear words rolling off a pink tongue. More bad words followed as one sock decided to stick to Ernests’ pretty foot but Novak didn’t feel like chuckling any more when the last piece of cloth left the younger player’s body. His boyfriend wasn’t only cute; he was also hot now and Novak couldn’t imagine how much hotter he could be as years passed by. He just hoped that he would be there to see it.
Yap-yap.
Novak blinked his eyes in disbelief as his hot boyfriend threw the dog out of the water and jumped in its place. It was nice to have a hottie on the lap but the problem was that he looked incredibly mad.
“I’m so sorry, Ernie. Pierre isn’t even close to…”
At the sound of the hateful name on the lips that he loved so much, Ernests did what he could to shut his boyfriend up.
Bang.
The back of Novak’s head hit the faucet but he wasn’t sure if his head was spinning because of the bump or because of the kiss. A pair of plump, hot lips was devouring his own and it was hard to keep up with the pace.
Yap-yap!
“Shut it, you ugly bunch of white fur!”
Ernests threw the soap towards the door and heard the dog run away.
“Ahaha… How often do I get to see such a violent side of yours?”
Novak splashed a handful of water on Ernests’ face only to get a bucketful of water in return.
“This is all your fault!” Ernests’ index finger was right in front of Novak’s nose.
“I know it is.”
The Serb smiled widely, ready to deal with the consequences. He had had enough fun both with the dog and the ‘simmering like a volcano’ Ernests for the last five days. He wasn’t worried too much of what the Latvian would do to him. It wasn’t like Ernests was capable of murder even though he had just proved that he was capable of giving him a concussion.
“You don’t look like you’re feeling any remorse!” Ernests’ voice got louder.
“Remorse? Why would I…”
Apparently, the twenty one year old knew only one way to shut up people but Novak didn’t mind it. He actually liked it and the kiss was more intense than usual. He quickly took control of the kiss and pushed Ernests back towards the end of the bathtub, wrapping one hand around the back of his boyfriend’s head so he wouldn’t bang it.
“Don’t try to be nice now! It’s too late!”
Novak kissed the corner of the narrowed eyes and asked with a chuckle. “You felt less loved because of a dog?”
“I didn’t feel any love at all! Do you even remember what I did on Wednesday night? God…”
Ernests hid his face in Novak’s right shoulder while the Serb playfully refreshed both of their memories.
“You mean, do I remember you trying to seduce me by moaning loudly in the bedroom while I was in the living room playing with the dog?”
“How could you not join me? I was so sure you couldn’t have resisted me!”
“Aww, sweetheart, trust me, I had to bite my tongue not to call your name and jump into bed with you. But hey, thanks to my patience, we’ll get to find out what make-up sex is like.”
Novak caressed the curls that displayed a slightly darker color when met with water. Ernests’ hair seemed to have the ability to look adorable in any kind of state at any time of the day.
“Who said that we’d have make-up sex? I haven’t forgiven you.”
Ernests pulled back from the warm body to prove his point.
“Ah, I got you something in case you would say that. Let’s get out of the water so I can show you.”
The two rinsed off their bodies, and in about half an hour, Ernests was ready to open his present in the living room, body and hair dried by his guilty boyfriend who had even insisted that he should dress him in warm pajamas.
“Let’s see if this will get you make-up sex.”
The younger player rubbed his hands in excitement of having a gift in front of him. He had never learnt how to say no to gifts and he certainly didn’t plan to learn it any time soon.
“It’s something practical. Open it.”
Intrigued by Novak’s confidence, Ernests let his fingers unwrap the shiny black box.
“Oh, handcuffs. What a surprise!”
Ernests hadn’t expected such an unusual gift but the three letters on the tag made him gasp.
“Oh my god. Don’t tell me these are real FBI handcuffs!”
“They are!” Novak stated proudly.
“You’re serious? You know someone from the bureau? How did you get these?”
Ernests couldn’t think of a way that his boyfriend could have got his hands on a genuine pair of FBI handcuffs.
“Um…”
Novak rolled his brain, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. Somehow he didn’t think that Ernests would appreciate the fact that he had knocked on his neighbors’ doors to introduce Pierre and behind one door, a Spaniard had handed him a pair of handcuffs, claiming that he had got two pairs from a good friend of his and that he only needed one. The Latvian already had enough problems dealing with the weird side of the ATP; he had had nightmares for two nights after Llodra had danced naked in front of his locker and he couldn’t have cream on his coffee for a while after walking in on the Andys in the massage room.
“Nole? Did you get them on e-bay?” Ernests asked, still stunned to see a real pair of FBI cuffs.
“They have handcuffs on eBay?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“I got it from a… colleague.” Novak confessed.
“A colleague? You have the same job as me… which means that a tennis player gave you this.”
“Do you want to know who gave me those cuffs or would you rather try them on me?”
Novak held out his wrists suggestively, not wanting to give up the name of the player who had found him the perfect gift for the day.
Ernests had never really felt the need to tie his boyfriend up before - since Novak had never tried to run away from him - but he was a well-educated person who knew that it was only polite to appreciate gifts given to him.
“I hope you don’t have any plans for the weekend, ‘cause you’re not going anywhere.”
The tone that Ernests used was so gentle and innocent that Novak wasn’t sure if he had heard the words right.
“You can have me where you want for the whole weekend, cheri.”
“Do not use French when you’re with me. The only thing French allowed in this house should be French fries.”
Ernests grabbed one of his captive’s wrists and headed to the bedroom while Novak happily followed him.
“Should I call you master?”
Ernests turned red and shook his head in a hurry. “No. Ernie’s fine.”
Novak loved how shy the boy could be and he wouldn’t want him any other way. He knew way too many players who would have answered him differently.
“Okay, dear Ernie. Let’s spend a hell of a happy weekend.”
“Happy for me. Not too sure for you.”
Ernests pushed the Serb onto the bed and climbed on top of him. It was time to start yet another adventurous weekend.
In the middle of the night…
Novak was covered in sweat and in other types of fluid thanks to his passionate boyfriend. He had lost count of how many times he had called Ernests’ name and screamed how much he loved him. He usually didn’t lose his mind this much but the handcuffs had a strong effect; he had never minded Ernests taking control but he hadn’t felt as powerless and submissive as tonight.
“Tired already?” Ernests was tired too but he still had anger and frustration left to let out.
“I give up.” Novak mumbled against the Latvian’s lips that had kissed every part of his body.
“On what?”
“The dog.”
Novak could see his boyfriend’s face light up even in the thick darkness.
“Can you repeat what you just said?” Ernests didn’t feel tired any more.
“I’ll send the dog somewhere else since it bothers you so much.”
“Ah, I can’t possibly ask you to do that. It was a gift from your fans.”
Ernests made yet another love bite on the side of the Serb’s neck which was one of his favorite spots.
“Ernie!!”
“Geez, no need to yell. I’m right here.” Ernests chuckled, enjoying the clinking sound coming from the bedpost.
“I’ll send the dog away so let’s please go to sleep.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to send it to Gasquet just because the dog is French.”
“Eh, that’s too far away. I was thinking… Mario, maybe. He speaks French and could use some company. Plus he lives right around the corner.”
“Oh, Mario’s perfect!” Ernests was happy to have found a way to repay the Croatian for his cooking.
“Great! Can we sleep now?” Novak yawned. He was too tired to clean himself up.
“Sure! Let me uncuff you and go fetch a wet cloth.”
Ernests took off the handcuffs from his boyfriend and left the room, humming merrily.
‘Why do I love that father of all jealousies?’ Novak thought as his eyelids kept shutting out the world.
“Aww, you can drift off to dreamland, Nole. I’ll take care of you.”
‘Ah, it’s that voice… that kind voice… and those hands, they can reach everywhere and…’
Ernests looked at the twenty two year old who was fast asleep with an open mouth.
‘Hehe, cuffs were fun! We should use it every once in a while! And there’s no dog in our bed tonight, yay!’
A loving hand slowly moved along a warm body. All Ernests could hear was the soft sound Novak made while breathing in and out and the sound of his own heartbeat.
‘Ah, everything is back to its place, all calm and…’
The sound of the dog scratching the bedroom door made Ernests jump off the bed.
“Sorry, those puppy eyes don’t have any effect on me.” He mumbled as he kindly lifted Pierre and put him under his sleeping blanket in the corner of the living room.
“Have a good night and a good life.” The Latvian squeezed all the mercy out of him and patted the dog on the head.
“I am going back to bed and I’ll enjoy a good life as well, thanks!”
Ernests replied to Pierre’s quiet barks and locked the bedroom door behind him. Nobody was going to get in or out until he was a hundred percent sure that there wouldn’t be any competition in the house.
Chu.
‘Sleep tight, dear. Tough weekend ahead of you.’
Ernests kissed Novak once more on the nose and cuddled up against him. It was good to be back in his place where he, and only he, belonged.