Judge My Skills, Not Me

Chapter 22: Tell Me Three Things

Delicate by Taylor Swift & Sweet Creature by Harry Styles

"What are you doing here?" Cristina stood at the door. She self-consciously held her blanket tighter around her so he wouldn't see her distressed state. 'Por Dios, Cristina. You couldn't even check your hair before opening the door,' she cursed to herself in her head. She undid the braid from earlier Leo made during the game and put her hair up trying to wipe her face.

Leo lifted the grocery bag with the two pints of vanilla ice cream he bought on the way there. "Thought you could use a pick-me-up after earlier," he said scratching the back of his neck unsure if he should have come, "And well, after that press conference I couldn't stop thinking about you... I mean after you ran out like that I wanted to know if you were okay," he rambled. Cristina's gaze softened at his effort to come to comfort her. "Are you... okay?" he asked hesitantly.

Cristina gave him a sad smile and started tearing up. He didn't even let the first tear escape her eyes when he hugged her. He dropped the bag on the floor embracing her and trying to calm her. She started crying in his arms, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize for being vulnerable, especially to me," he said rubbing her back and trying to soothe her. "How about we go inside?" he said still holding her. Cristina's head at the crook of his neck nodded slightly as she made way for him to come in. Leo smiled at her, "We can't let this ice cream melt." Cristina let out a laugh and he was happy she wasn't so distraught that her sunshine was gone. 'She's still smiling. That's good,' was all he was thinking heading inside.

They walked into the kitchen. Leo put the grocery bag on the island in the middle of the kitchen as Cristina sat on the stool and put her face in her hands. Cristina caught a glance at herself in the shine of the marble tabletop. "I look like a mess," she said covering her face with the blanket again, embarrassed.

Leo only smiled and lifted the blanket even though she protested. "If this is you looking bad, I can't imagine what you look like trying your hardest." Cristina blushed at his words. Leo caught himself staring at her for too long and distracted himself by looking in every cabinet and drawer for bowls and spoons.

As he was scooping out the ice cream into a bowl and looked in the refrigerator and pantry for toppings, Cristina tried to fix her appearance using the reflection of a pan Ben cleaned this morning. Leo found a couple of toppings like sprinkles, and caramel syrup, and cut up some strawberries for her. He knew she liked strawberries because every time in the dining hall after training, Cristina would grab a bowl just for strawberries and down them by herself. Ney would try and grab one from her stash, and Cristina would slap his hand away threatening the Brazilian with words that even the devil himself would cower at.

Once Leo finished preparing her sundae, he placed it in front of her. Cristina looked at it and saw he made a smiley face with the strawberries. It looked more like a scary face a kid would draw to describe the monster under his bed, but she thought it was cute, in a weird, scary kind of nightmare-inducing way. She laughed at his attempt to cheer her up, "You're too sweet."

Leo only smiled at himself, proud of his work of art. They ate in comfortable silence with only the sound of their spoons clinking against the bowls. They sat next to each other on the kitchen island catching glances at each other. "Hope I didn't wake you up," Leo said finishing the last of his ice cream.

Cristina mixed the melted ice cream at the bottom of her bowl with her spoon a bit dazed by the action. "No, not really," she said looking at him and giving him a slightly forced smile. "I couldn't really sleep anyways." She got up and started to put the dishes in the sink and run water over them. Cristina looked into the sink focusing on the sound of the rushing water and lost focus of the conversation. She didn't even notice when Leo was next to her and turned the faucet off. Cristina tried to play it off, but the look on Leo's face told her she wasn't as good of an actress as she thought. Cristina looked at her fuzzy socks embarrassed, "I just can't believe I didn't see him in the crowd."