madrid ✦ álvaro morata

eight

26TH JULY 2016 || MONTREAL
✈️ COLUMBUS, OHIO

THE UNSPOKEN TRUCE fluttered between the ex-lovers for the remaining 8 or so days in Michigan and they hoped it would carry on past the pre-season tour.

They never held a conversation after that night at the rooftop. In fact, they hardly exchanged words, but neither of them felt so burdened anymore. They felt reborn and they felt purposeful, however cheesy that sounded. Klara's grudge seemed to filter away too. Feelings will always linger between the two and they knew that but yet, they didn't feel the need to act on it.

Klara didn't have to film the training that day as it was a quick hotel-lobby training before they did their actual training in Ohio. She slept in a little late, but there were still crew at the breakfast buffet after she was done packing up her things and getting ready for the day.

She ate quickly before deciding to go up to the rooftop once more. It was only a quick trip, but being the corny shit she was, she just wanted to see the place where it might've all changed one more time.

-

It was an eventful flight to say the least. The jet had hit some kind of turbulence and Casemiro dropped his glass of whatever and the angle of the jet caused the liquid to spill all down the aisle and make the floor sticky and the players all became rowdy after Neymar decided to FaceTime Marcelo from Rio. Off the pitch and away from the papers, Barcelona and Real Madrid players actually had a decent relationship due to the fact some players played together in their national teams.

Raphaël was fast asleep by the window and Klara has her laptop on the flip-up table with the camera on her lap connected to it. Even though she had a lot of space on her camera, she still filled up the storage pretty quickly. She quickly transferred them all to her desktop and looked through the photos and footage.

Most were footage from training which she didn't bother to watch, but some were oh-so captivating and gorgeous.

Her favourite one must have been the time-lapse of the rooftop. She was up there for maybe half an hour before Álvaro came up and she had managed to film the sky for that long and watch it turn phenomenal colours.

"Klara!" Marco called out her name from further down the jet.

"Yeah?" she called back. He asked her to come over and so she nervously made her way to them. Klara would never reveal her slight fear of air contraptions.

"Can you take our photo?" he held out his iPhone.

She took it and rolled her eyes, "Who do I look like? You photographer?- Wait don't answer that!"

The boys laughed and then retreated into their position. Klara quickly took a photo of Isco, Mateo and Jesé and handed back the phone.

"Hey, where's Rafa?" Isco asked.

"Fast asleep," she answered.

"How tired is he? That wasn't even a hard practice!" Mateo chuckled.

"Rafa can fall asleep just about anywhere even if he isn't tired," she giggled, "How long do we have until we land? I'm hungry as hell,"

"About an hour, I think," Isco shrugged and then picked up a lone cupcake from a box which held four, "But you can have this. There's no one left to eat it,"

She thanked him, but before she bit it, she felt some hand knock against hers to make it fall to the floor of the airplane.

"Mate, did you want it or something?" Mateo laughed at the Spaniard who jumped out of his seat, which was situated behind Isco's.

Klara pouted at Álvaro and picked it up, "I was hungry!"

Álvaro regained his statute and sat back down, "Sorry, Klara. That contains walnuts though,"

She widened her eyes and looked down shamefully. She should have checked, "Oh yeah," she flushed, "I'm allergic to walnuts. Sorry for wasting it, Isco,"

"Oh my God, I should have checked! Don't worry," Isco apologised profusely at the girl.

"Thanks Álvaro," she smiled gratefully at Álvaro who shook his head modestly.

"It's nothing Klara. I'm just looking out for you," he responded.

Klara shot him one last smiled before going back to her seat. Raphaël, as expected, was still passed out against the window.

The thought about Álvaro remembering her allergy made her heart flutter, but then again there was one experience with her allergy that he probably would never forget.

It was just some sunny day in summer when they were about 16. Álvaro didn't have training for that whole week and spent almost every waking minute beside his girlfriend.

They were taking a walk in the park and the cupcake shop was right off the path they were walking on. Klara told Álvaro to surprise her with the flavour and he got a coffee walnut cupcake for himself and a pumpkin cupcake for her. Both were in orange cases with plain vanilla buttercream piped on. Appearance wise, they were identical and Álvaro had accidentally given her the wrong one.

Two minutes later, her eyes were watery and her cheeks red as she gasped for breath and itched at her throat. Thankfully, the hospital was near and he could run her to the hospital before anything got life-threatening. It was certainly a learning experience for both.

-

"Wake up!" she groaned foe the umpteenth time as she shook her best friend awake. He kept swatting her hand away so she had no choice but to slap him.

"Ow! What the fuck?" he exclaimed and shot up.

"Hey!" Klara put her hands up defensively, "You wouldn't wake up and it worked,"

"Bitch," he joked and hauled himself up. They were one of the only ones left on the jet which irked Klara because she would have liked to see Ohio for the first time with everyone else.

"Come on, come on!" she pulled at him down the plane until they breathed in the air, "Fresh air!"

"That was only two hours," Raphaël chuckled.

"Yeah, two hours that you were asleep through! I almost ate walnuts in a cupcake and I didn't realise," she told him.

"Who stopped you?"

She flushed, "Álvaro,"

Raphaël kept his face stoic and expressionless as they walked through the ground and onto the Real Madrid bus. The hotel they would stay in would be another 20 minute drive away.