Chapter Text
« I have an offer for you. »
Haaland had that usual sparkle in his eyes, as if he knew what he was gonna say was about to cause a great chaos. Bellingham recognised this sparkle well now.
« It’s gonna sound crazy! But please stay with me. »
The British football player still didn’t answer. He was waiting for the thing itself before reacting.
« So you remember the night after our first win together…
-OH MY GOD I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO TALK ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT. »
Already Bellingham was running away from the conversation. They had agreed not to talk about this night. And up until now, they had succeeded in doing so just fine. But as he was speed walking away, Jude felt a big hand on his arm.
« Hold on hold on. I know we’re not supposed to talk about it. But it doesn’t mean I don’t think about it.
-well think about it all by yourself. I don’t wanna have anything to do with your mind, Erling. Now fuck off. »
And Jude turned away from the blond Viking again. He couldn’t look him in the eye; every memory he had buried deep into his brain was surfacing, all with smell, sound and HD quality image. They were drunk; they were far away from home; it shouldn’t matter at all! but still, still the other guy was still talking.
« What if I told you I can get you one step closer to the world cup if you just listen. To. Me. »
Now Bellingham had stopped.
« What do you mean?
- Did you really just stop when I mentioned work? Jude you are one hell of a man.
-Just get on with it what do you mean?!
-Ok, ok hold on. We could make a deal. I manage to make my team lose tonight. And in return, you…
-Make your team lose?
-Well yeah, if I don’t score and maybe even sabotage a little bit, I really can break the game, and-
-Make your team lose.
-Either way we don’t have the level to win the thing, we don’t have enough experience as a team. Don’t give me wrong, everyone is super talented, but we’re just not there ye-
-YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT LOSING ON PURPOSE DURING THE WORLD CUP!
-Jude…
-DON’T « JUDE » ME! Haaland if any of your mates could hear you right now, they would break down in rage and fucking pin you to the floor and beat you up. No matter how big and strong you are, no one and I mean NO ONE can talk about a game like that. When you play in a team, you play serious. Hear me?
-I just wanted to tell you-
-Do you motherfucking hear me.
-Yes.
-Good. See you on the field then.
-No! You didn’t give me a chance to talk!
-when you start your speech like that, I think it’s a reasonable reaction.
-yeah ok. But don’t leave like that. We literally have ten hours before the game, we’re not gonna be able to avoid each other all the time, so better get it straight now.
- getting it straight means disturbing me just before a match? Wow Erling, great job.
- please Jude… you can’t tell me you don’t remember this…”
And Haaland circled Bellingham’s waist with one of his hands, yanking him closer to him, forcing Bellingham to put both his hands on the bigger man’s chest to not head bonk into him. The English man gasped in surprise and never caught his breath again, trapped as he was against the Viking’s chest.
“Don’t pretend like you never thought about it again.”
His voice was getting lower and lower, now closer to a whisper as he was slowly lowering his head.
“Don’t tell me you don’t, even a little, want it to happen again…”
As he was speaking, Haaland was looking into the eyes of the man he was holding so close. These dark eyes, adorably looking up at him; this half-open mouth, caught in a gasp; these angled eyebrows, angled not in anger but as if a rabbit was looking straight into a car’s headlights. And nowhere on this face there was disgust or rejection. Just waiting. Haaland sighed and let his head drop onto the smaller man’s shoulder.
“You know I don’t deny things. I think about you a lot Jude. I miss you.
- What…”
The British man had finally broken out of his trance. The Norwegian didn’t move, afraid to break his courage.
“What was your offer exactly?”
A big grin spread across Haaland’s face. He was still holding Bellingham close, tighter than ever, as he turned his head towards the other’s neck to be able to speak:
“I make my team lose tonight. You give yourself to me until the next world cup.”
__
“Give myself to you? Until the next world cup ?!”
Bellingham back away from their embraced. He was shocked.
“What exactly do you mean, Erling? You want me to be at your beck and call for four years? Have you lost your mind?
- No no no, I don’t want you to be like a sex slave or anything like that, my god no. just like, sex friends? Just to try things out together?
- Try things out for four years hm-mh.
- One year if you want. And then we’ll see where we’re at.
- Do you think you’re being slick right now? Why in the world would you need to lose the match to ask that?
- To make sure you don’t chicken out. I know you Bellingham. You’re proud and probably the most principled person I know. If I give you something that big, you won’t be able to keep the debt forever.
- So you want to trap me.
- I want to make an agreement with your full consent now so that we actually go through with it later.
- You really think that’s necessary? If I really want to do that with you, then why would we need a contract like that?
- Like I said, I know you. You’d chicken out if it’s too high of a risk.”
Bellingham had nothing to respond to that. He lowered his head, rubbing his hair, thinking. He kinda wanted to do it. They would’ve probably won the match anyways, but being sure of it wouldn’t hurt. He couldn’t tell his teammates though. They would be asking to many questions. And it was also true he had flashes of this one night every time him and the tall blonde got a bit too physically close. He knew just how good this deal would make him feel. But also, they weren’t playing for the same team anymore. It’d be difficult to see each other. That mitigated the risk of getting caught. His decision was taken.
“Ok Erling. I’ll do it. We’ll sleep together ONCE. And then I’ll see.”
The Viking smiled. They shook hands. Haaland kissed Bellingham on the top of the head as he was heading out.