Sorry in advance for any typos/grammar errors. ☺️ Enjoy! x
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***** It was no secret that Cristiano wasn't the same person he was a year ago, his teammates could all see it. Even his former teammates from past teams noticed the difference. It was something that the public didn't (and couldn't) know about. To the public eye, to an everyday fan, he was the same. He was a good person, a happy person, living the good life. He was the human embodiment of perfection. People envied his lifestyle and fans looked up to him as an inspiration.
They weren't in the wrong for doing so, because in a sense, he was the same person. He achieved countless awards throughout his lifetime, almost too many trophies under his belt.
Yet, he wasn't happy. Maybe he was a year ago, but not now. He was broken. An empty shell of a man. Physically? Fine. Emotionally? Gone.
As weeks passed, more games played, the support grew, but so did the amount of hate. The pessimism of some of the fans was never something that bothered Cristiano before, but it did now. People telling him to Just go back to Madrid or Transfer to another team, others saying things like Cristianos hit his prime, he's only getting worse as time goes on...
He couldn't stand it, his heart already broken and his soul shattered. His eyes kept scanning over the tweets, the posts, all of it. He turned his phone off after reading the last thread of comments...
You should just retire already.
*****
Paulo stared at Cristiano from a distance, debating on going to talk to him or not. Cristiano was doing some type of passing drills, he was excellent as usual, not missing once. Yet, he looked... lost. Like he wasn't there mentally, his body was doing all the work for him, his face was just blank though. Which wasn't unusual these days, he always looked that way.
The sound of the whistle made Paulo's eyes snap away, they all started walking towards the locker room. Practice was over it seemed.
Paulo's eyes eventually drifted back to the Portuguese man, Cris' eyes were downcast, his head lowered. He was walking slower than the others, and Paulo saw that as an invitation. He strutted closer until he was walking side by side with Cris.
"Are you alright?" He asked, trying to aim for warm and comforting. Cristiano glanced over at him and shrugged.
"Same as always."
Paulo nodded slowly, he wanted to just end it there but something was telling him to just... talk to him.
"Hey Cris... I was um," Paulo stopped him just as they were about to open the door. Cristiano didn't look up, his eyes remained down. "I wondering if maybe you wanted to... Hang out sometime?"
