Mr. Brightside || João Félix

E I G H T Y - F I V E

"Hurry, hurry, you're gonna be late," Federico tells me.

"Is it like tradition for you to run late for your flights ?" João asks.

"You're late too," I say.

"Okay, how about instead of arguing, you get a move on," Fede suggests.

"Right, right, bye, my sweet boy," I say picking Beni up and hugging him tightly. "Fede, thank you for everything," I tell him, pulling him into a hug, "you too Mina," I hug her. "Just for a couple of months," I say hugging Cristiano, mostly to myself really, I don't like being away from him, "I love you, behave."

"I love you too," he says hugging me tightly.

I don't want to pull away but I know if I don't I'll start crying. I watch on as João says his final goodbyes to them and we head towards the gate.

"You doing okay ?" he asks reaching for my hand and squeezing it.

"No," I admit, "I don't like leaving Cris, like it's one thing for me to leave him knowing I'll see him in a couple of days, but a few months."

"You said you'd be coming like twice a month, you'll see him soon," he says kissing the top of my head as we walk over to the man scanning our tickets to board the plane.

I sigh knowing he's right, lifting our hands to my lips and kissing the back of his. I pull my phone out of my pocket letting my dad know I'm boarding my flight. João practically drags us to our seats while I send the message out to my dad. We take our seats, with João letting me have the window seat. It's the little things that make me fall in love with this man more and more.

I wait for the flight attendants to do their little demonstration before I let João know that I'm going down for a nap, placing my phone on airplane mode and slipping my airpods in. I lean against the window, getting comfortable and I smile as I feel João lay his head on my shoulder.

-

A few hours later, we're landing. I yawn, holding off on the stretching until we actually land as to not wake João. When we finally land, I gently shake João awake. "Baby, we're here," I say.

I hear him groan, lifting his head off my shoulder slightly, stretching and cracking his neck. I side eye him, my neck gets cracked when I go to the chiropractor, I cant do it on my own. I stretch myself and wait until we're allowed off the plane.

Once we all start pilling off, we head for baggage claim in silence, both of us still trying to mentally wake up. I text the group chat asking for one of those losers to pick us up from the airport. Pulisic, the most responsible one from the group texted me back letting me know he'd he here in like 15-20 minutes. I sigh as we head to the waiting area to wait for him in silence.

We sit on the waiting seats, and João lays his head on my shoulder again. I'm just as exhausted as he is, but one of us has to stay awake. I take my phone out again, letting my family group chat know that we've arrived. I take a moment to text João's mom and Hugo as well, knowing João probably wont do it considering his current state.

I shake João again upon receiving Pulisic's message that he just arrived. He wakes up, helping me with our luggage and we head for the exit to look for Christian. Once we find him, he comes pover to us, helping us get our luggage inside.

"Thank you so much," I say, "Kai was supposed to pick us up, but I think the dumbass forgot," I groan.

"Clearly," Pulisic laughs.

"Sorry for bothering you," I say, "you're a real life saver."

"It's no bother at all," he says giving me a reassuring smile.