Cause and Effect

Thirty

A/N: a wild update appeared! If you're nice to me a shiny one will appear tomorrow ;)

(Also that photo of "young" Pep and Thierry lol)

"Nia, you're going to want to see this."

I looked up to see it was Lex who had spoken. He stood in the door to the gym looking as fresh as a daisy, where a high percentage of the first team were working their hardest in anticipation of the semi finals. I raised an eyebrow at the Chilean.

"What is it? Can it wait?"

I wasn't normally so disciplined in the gym, but again, we had a semi final against Real Madrid hanging over our heads. Even the laziest of us seemed to have a new found diligence.

"Boss wants you," he shook his head. "It's important."

I would have been worried, only Alexis had a mischievous glint in his eye that calmed me. Whatever it was, it couldn't be too bad.

I was surprised to see Thierry's office was full to the burst as Lex and I entered.

"Good," said Thierry, when he saw me. "Sit down, Nia. You too, Alexis."

Alexis, who had been on the point of leaving, looked up surprised.

"Me?"

"Your name's Alexis, isn't it?" Said the boss, with a chuckle. "You're included in this, you deserve to be here."

At that point, I ran my eye over the occupants of the room, and was startled to see none other than Pep Guardiola, Cris, and Anya. Neymar was perched on the edge of Thierry's desk, which was just asking for it, honestly, I was surprised he hadn't been chased out with a rain of desk top items flying after him. Thierry had such a thing about us sitting on his desk when we were in there. It wasn't until my eyes fell on Zara that understanding hit me.

"Oh," I said, dumbfounded. "How..."

"Sit, Ramos," Thierry repeated in a commanding tone.

I obeyed orders, and since no chairs remained, sat on the desk beside Neymar. He rested a hand on my leg automatically, and we smiled briefly at one another.

"Alright," said Thierry, "I believe Anya has something to show us."

The brunette nodded, and passed Thierry a few papers stapled together in the corner. From the brief glance I got, it seemed to be a print out of an article from the Sun. Thierry eyed us all critically, before he began to read.

"THE REASON WHY RONALDO AND NEYMAR HATE EACH OTHER:

We all know there's no love lost between Manchester City's Cristiano Ronaldo, and Arsenal's Neymar Jr. In fact, the two have made no secret of showing their pointed dislike..."

Thierry paused, and glanced at the chief offenders. The two smirked at each other unashamedly, and I stared at them in astonishment. This was the closest I'd ever seen them come to a friendly exchange. I noticed Anya rolling her eyes with a smile, making me feel like I was the only one who didn't know what was going on here. As for Zara, she only looked worried, and increasingly so.

"We now know the reason behind their animosity," Thierry continued. "Our sources tell us the two were seen outside the Nike event held a few weeks ago, arguing over a girl. What was her name? You can probably guess, after last week's Arsenal-Bayern quarter final..."

"What?!" I exclaimed, turning to look at Neymar in shock. "Please tell me you weren't actually..."

"Calm down," Neymar said, tightening his grip on my knee. "Just wait."