Je cours {JULIÁN ÁLVAREZ CENTRIC}

CHAPTER ONE: The same opportunity doesn't come knocking twice on the same door

Erling knows he's not the best person, not the best alpha. But God, if he wanted to change after all.

He met Julián the day both men were introduced to the club as the new, promising signings. And if the omega didn't get his heart there, with his shy smile and his monosyllabic answers over every single thing the alpha was telling him, then he definitely got him when they first ever shared a pitch and scored. The pure majesty of seeing the omega run between the defense to get the ball over and execute such a beautiful goal was making Erling's lungs scream, feeling the entire air of the Etihad become one with their fussed pheromones mixing the smell of coffee and wet grass.

And since then everything went uphill between them, starting with flirting in training, passing for fleeting touches during goal celebrations and the showers, to kisses post-game in the locker room when there were just the two of them, to spending nights with their bodies tangling between the sheets.

And everything to Erling was like a fairytale, and he was so close to claiming Julián, of finally coming out to his family and telling them "this is MY destined omega"...But then, just like the clock struck 12 to Cinderella, the tale ended.

Turns out his destiny wasn't Julián, but the daughter of some of his parents' friends from Norway he met on a trip he made during recess to visit home (and where he planned to tell them about Julián). And even if he felt the pull, the primal need of claiming, his inner alpha also called for another thing, an itch he wasn't able to scratch around this girl.
But everything happened so fast, his family realized of the bond and immediately started celebrating over their son finally getting an omega with whom he could settle down. And he thought he had balls, and he has money and doesn't depend on them so he could have told them that this person isn't who he really loved, but he decided to coward himself and let them talk, never trying to contradict them for some reason.

When he returned to Manchester, he was received by Julián flooding the entire house with his happy pheromones, the omega in the kitchen cooking something and humming along to the music. When he felt his alpha he turned around to greet him but -as soon as he saw his face and smelt him- he knew things would never be the same again.

Erling broke up with Julián at that moment, dropping the words like a bomb and not giving him a single explanation (he thought that would make it easier for the omega). Julián ran to the bedroom's bathroom and locked himself up there until Erling decided to leave him some space by crashing into the house of Ødegaard.

When he came back to the house the next morning, he found none of Julián's stuff there anymore. Not even his smell.

By the time they went back to the club post-international break, the first thing that greeted him was a punch to his guts courtesy of Dias. The blonde crouched on the floor half in pain and half in shock, and the only thing the other alpha said to him was:

"Is the least you deserve"

And since then, Julián never hung around him again. On the pitch, if they played together the omega would act completely normal, like anything ever happened, but as soon as they were in the locker room he wouldn't even give him the time of the day even if they were the only two people there.

During the summer window, the news that the omega terminated his contract with City on his own accord and decided to take the offer to Barcelona -even if it was a lower salary- hit him like a storm. Still not less than the news that Rúben was also leaving to the Spanish club, and also with a reduced salary. The two men parted on a sunny afternoon during the week of July, in one of the few nice days the city of Manchester could offer in between so much cloudly sky, rain and humidity and since then, Erling lost all contact with them.

The alpha ended up marrying his destined omega at the end, even if neither of them actually wanted to go through it, becoming the marriage into a routine that ended up with both of them cheating each other, in a sort of silent mutual agreement. Erling always sought in other people the warmth that Julián used to give him, the security of his touches and the smell of comfort he brought to his life. But he never was able to find it.

The years passed, and Erling's life became monotonous, that is until he signed with Real Madrid.
He never again shared pitch with the Argentinian and the Portuguese, they never crossed on Champions; but now, Erling thought that maybe this was the time he could actually recover something of the completely damaged relation he had with Julián.

He tried for years to erase both people from his life, their names silenced and social medias blocked, his teammates knowing they shouldn't talk of them being the Norwegian around (and this has nothing to do with the fact that -a year after that fatidic breakup- he found an ultrasound picture fallen behind the headboard of the bed with Julián's name on top of it, showing a small white blob that most than probably was a baby Julián was waiting from him).

So imagine his surprise when, five years since that goodbye at the Etihad, he saw them again.

Though now things were different; the only one on the pitch was Dias, with his beaming smile, looking like he was ten years younger even if he was older than Erling and Julián, this time sat on the stands of the Camp Nou with two beautiful boys sitting next to him, a beautiful pair of twins that were the carbon copy of the Portuguese pointing to everything happening on the game in complete wonder.
And if losing 5-0 his first Clásico as a Blanco wasn't utter shit, seeing the omega walking down the stairs of the stadium with his children holding his hands and greeting the alpha with a kiss on the mouth, in front of everyone, while the kids tried to climb their father to celebrate was the nail to his coffin, what he needed to finally understand that he only had one chance with Julián, and wasted it by being a total coward.