𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧

Distress call.

for the duration of the practice, Mattia had been playing horrible. no goals, no passes, working on his own, but horrible. there was always a fight with the team and him on the lack of involvement the others had once his feet touched the ball. he was good, yeah, on his own he could easily win a game. but not today. so much that the coach even sent him to the bench. that's something that caught everyone by surprise, but even more to alejandro when he saw the boy not sit, but make his way to the locker rooms.

"coach! i'm taking five i need the bathroom!" he yell.

the old man didn't do more than nod his head as the costa rican made his way through the field, and onto the same hallway mattia had gone through a couple of minutes ago.

he found the italian battling with a locker, trying to take something out of it.

"that locker is empty, mattia" alejandro said, breaking the silence as he sat down on the bench in the middle of the room.

receiving a frustrated sight from mattia who ended up slamming the door of the metal locker, yet still fooling around with it.

"i don't have time for this." mattia replied, a stern tone coming from him. but alejandro knew better than that, and knew he was just seconds away from breaking.

"what's going on? you were horrible back there." he blurted out, chuckling as he tried to bring some humor into the room.

mattia ended up walking towards the boy, but his posture didn't lasted long before he fell onto his knees, right between alejandro's legs. that caught the boy by surprise, along with the sobs that started echoing through the room.

mattia had his forehead pressed against alejandro's sweated thigh, but he could care less. his cup was full and alejandro caring for him was the last drop.

"i can't take it anymore." he mumbled, anger on his voice instead of sadness. it was as if he wanted to break something, and do it over and over again. cause that's how he felt, broken. tore into pieces by his own father.
of course, that's something alejandro didn't knew, nothing related to the abuse of his father had been a topic of conversation between them. otherwise, this wouldn't be happening.

"i can't do this anymore, it's not distracting me enough." his sobs kept coming, along with the same hatred in his voice.

ale didn't knew what to say, or how to act. he didn't even knew why mattia was in his lap crying. he'd never seen him like such before, mattia was the strong one of the group. in any case, alejandro would be the one crying like this. gently, both of his hands intertwined on the locks of the latter, caressing his head as he searched for words.

"calm down, just breath." alejandro said, this time him breaking the silence, or well, his silence. he didn't knew what to do, no one had ever done something like this with him, nor he expected mattia to be his first.

"talk it out with me, you can tell me anything." he added, but only got a denying move from mattia's head.

he wasn't going to talk about how his father had been abusing him ever since his mother left. the many nights he'd gone to sleep without eating, or hating himself even more when he moved on the bed and pressed in any wound he received. the nights where he would only get a few hours of sleep because he spend the night crying. he was a mess, and even though mattia thought he could keep it all in, he didn't. everyone had a breaking point, mattia's was just higher than everyone's.

"i'm not gonna talk about it. i don't want to." mattia said, talking for the first time as his sobs came to an end.

he finally raised his head, showing his reddened eyes and his cheeks stained with tears, the pieces of hair that were sticking on his face weren't helping either.

"i'm sorry." he added, quickly standing up from the floor and turning towards the sink. he started to think of it, he'd let himself down and was now expecting alejandro to bombard him with questions, when even alejandro himself didn't knew what to do. the only act that could be seen was from the boy wrapping his arms around mattia, tightening his hold around his frame.

"i'm here for you. for whatever you need me for mattia." alejandro said.

for the first time in a while, mattia smiled as he felt the embrace from the other. it's what he needed, it's what he wanted. he wanted love, for someone to be there for him, just like alejandro was.