Football Short Stories

Star Crossed - Raphaël Varane

Requested by the cutie Neyscar11.

Just a side note: the fictional character of Layan Benzema, who appears in this one shot was actually introduced in the "Catfight - El Clasico Special" story, she's back in here as a secondary character ;)

[EDIT] : This one shot is set right before the Euros and I know Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane weren't part of the French NT that played in the tournament. The thing is, I wrote this story in 2014, obviously I had no idea they weren't going to play at the Euros back then. So please excuse the inaccuracies, we'll just have to pretend they did play in the tournament for the sake of the plot.

On this note, enjoy :)

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JUNE 2016

The door leading to the balcony of the huge mansion where Audrey was hiding out suddenly creaked open, briefly letting in the sounds of the party before it slammed shut again. She shifted to look at who had just joined her outside and saw Raphael Varane standing in front of the closed door. He shot her a small smile before walking over to where she was standing, and leaning on the metal rail.

"Hey," he smiled "It's loud in there, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she giggled "I had to get some fresh air, my head was going to burst."

"Me too." He breathed before bringing his attention to the beautiful view they had from the balcony.

Audrey Marceau has been working with the management of The French National Football Team for exactly two years. She had been hired as an administrative subordinate right before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Even two years later, she knew she was extremely lucky to have retained her dream job, especially while she was so young, and couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Being around the same age as most players, she quickly got to know them on a personal level and became friends with most of the team. Raphael, along with Karim, Hugo and Paul were the players she was the closest to.

Since the Group Stage Matches of the Euros 2016 were right around the corner, the management had organized a formal event to which every player on the team as well as the management itself, down to the simple employees were invited. The party was held in a huge mansion, located a few kilometers away from the capital.

So far, the festivities were going great, everyone was enjoying their time without a care in the world, knowing that soon enough, they'd all have to go back to training or working hard to get France to hopefully win the Euros 2016.

"So Raph, tell me, on a scale of 1 to 10, how nervous are you feeling about the tournament?" Audrey asked leaning her arm on her friend's shoulder.

"Mmh..." He trailed off pensively "Remember when you met the team for the first time two years ago? Yeah that nervous." he laughed.

"Hey, tais-toi!" she giggled, shoving him away playfully "We promised not to talk about those embarrassing times anymore!"

"Come ooon Audrey," he laughed "You were just clumsy, it was your first day."

"You can say it, I totally embarrassed myself and made the worst first impression ever," she giggled squinting her eyes "I mean come on, I managed to spill coffee all over Didier's shirt, I got the names mixed up on the folders for the medical checkups and then I tripped and fell headfirst on Dimitri... all in the matter of 30 minutes. Clumsy would be a compliment at this point."