[ cinco ]

Aimée had been talking to Sasha all weekend, while also getting the occasional text from Milan. She had to admit Sasha was better at keeping up a conversation with her, despite the fact that they were entirely different. She had many more things in common with Milan, but she found that he would go very long without messaging her back. 

She didn't mind it as much because she had Sasha to talk to. 

He had been telling her that he was in the studio, recording his next single. Aimée appreciated that he was still taking the time to text her anyway. And he even told her that the single would be out on the radio in a couple of weeks, that it was a surprise for her. Aimée went red in the face slightly when Sasha told her he had been inspired by her, and that the song was dedicated to her. He promised she would be the first person to listen to it, the night before its release, and they had made plans for it.

Aimée was typing into her phone with a goofy grin on her face when she got a notification for an incoming text message. It was from Milan, replying to her after about an hour and a half. She had even forgotten already what their conversation was about.

milan: go to your front gates ;)

aimée: why??

milan: just do it please. <3

Aimée sighed and forced herself to get out of bed. It had been an especially tiring day at training and she arrived home completely drained of energy. The moment she had gotten inside the house, she raced to her room, changed into her pajamas, and got into bed. Her pajamas were a pair of Adidas training pants and one of her dad's old white jerseys from when he played in Real Madrid. He had a closet full of them. They were ones he had worn at actual matches, many of them were from important games or tournaments.

He had given many of them away, but the ones he still had were in that closet. Her mother Valerie always complained playfully about how Toni's closet was bigger than hers. But it was just so difficult for him to part with something so meaningful.

Aimée knew he even still had the jersey he wore at the world cup final in Brazil. That one was framed and kept in his bedroom where it was almost on display for everyone to see.

Aimée wanted to be able to do that with one of her jerseys one day.

She left her bedroom and trudged down the stairs to the front door. Then she followed the cement path that led to the gates. When she got there she saw, standing at the other side of them, Milan Piqué. He was freshly showered, dressed in jeans, a Barcelona t-shirt (which she knew he had probably done on purpose), and a leather jacket.

She immediately felt subconscious about being over dressed and her hand went to rake through her blonde hair. "Hey Milan." She smiled shyly.

"Were you about to go to sleep?" He wondered, looking her over.

Aimée shook her head. "Uh...no."

"Good." He grinned at her, and she felt her heart begin to thump quicker against her chest. "I was thinking maybe you and I could go out tonight."

"You came here from Barcelona for me?" Her blue eyes stared into his brown ones.

Milan nodded. "Yeah."

"Just give me a minute." She said. "I need to change clothes."

"That Madrid jersey is nice." He teased, and she knew he didn't mean what he said about liking her shirt. He was just like his father, always poking fun at Real Madrid. She had seen old interviews of Gerard Piqué, and she had to admit he was not her favorite person. But the fact that Milan was doing it and it didn't matter to him that she played for Real Madrid was something that she liked.

"And I like your FCB t-shirt." She raised an eyebrow at him.

She unlocked the gates and led him into the house, instructing him to wait for her in the living room while she went upstairs to go change. 

Aimée was thankful that she was the only one home at the moment. It was early after noon and her father was in the studio, filming the daily sports news that would air later that night. Her mother was probably there with him, or at her parents house. Her sisters would be arriving later, each of them had different things to do for their careers. Aimée knew that if her family was home, they wouldn't waste a second interrogating Milan as though he and Aimée were going to get married rather than just going on a date.

-

She quickly changed into a floral print dress and a jean jacket that she wore over it. She and Milan left the house and got into a car he had rented from the airport. The radio was on in the car, and Aimée's attention was completely captured when she heard the radio host announce the next song, "Next up, starting off our hour without commercials is Sasha with his song 'La Meva Vida' from his album 'Des del Cim del Món'. Our sources have told us that this Catalan sensation, son of Shakira and Gerard Piqué, is already working on his next album."

"Oh, he sings in Catalan?" She wondered aloud.

Milan gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "He sings in Spanish, Catalan, English..." He didn't really want to talk about his brother, with a girl they were both after. "From the Top of the World is a good album." He added. Even so, he was very proud of his younger brother.

Before the song could start playing, Milan reached over to the radio and clicked on a button to change the station. He had heard his brother's songs so many times that he already knew them by heart. Hearing them on the radio wasn't the same. He was used to hearing Sasha humming the tunes so annoyingly at every moment of the day, belting out his songs in his bedroom, the same line about a million times, until he could hit each note in just the right way. The hours he spent strumming that guitar of his...that was what Milan preferred to hear. The studio version was great, and clean, but the real experience was just better.

He thought that if Aimée could hear Sasha sing for her, then his chances with her would be lost. 

-

Milan took Aimée back to the airport where he had a plane waiting for them. The place he wanted to take her for the evening was in his home town of Barcelona. It only took them about an hour and a half to get there and there was a car already waiting for them when they arrived. Aimée had no idea where he was taking her, but each time she would ask he told her it was a surprise.

She thought he was probably going to take her to another night club, just as he did the first time. Milan was the type of guy who liked to go to parties all the time. She knew it well. He was always on the cover of gossip tabloids, attending the parties of several of his football friends. The most recent photos of Milan were with Elionor and what he called the Barca Squad, and they were leaving Davi Lucca's house party. 

Davi had been coined one of Brazilian football's biggest disappointments. With a father like Neymar Jr. it was expected that he would be in the best teams in the world. Many had even predicted that he would follow his father's footsteps and become an important player in FC Barcelona. 

But it didn't turn out that way.

He had gone through FCB's youth system. Though he had been kicked out of the team because he was often late to practice, and a lot of the time arrived to practice with a few drinks in him. He also spent most of his free time at parties and had a bad reputation of playing with women. Because of that, he was currently playing in the Bundesliga, in a not-so-pretigious team, with the world still watching him. 

The waiting car took Milan and Aimée to a carnival that had been set up in the clearing at the foot of the mountains of Montserrat, near Barcelona. There were colorful lights illuminating everything, as the afternoon sun set to make way for the moon. There were booths with games and food, and people having fun. 

Milan had the car parked in the dirt lot nearby and got out of the car, rushing around to get the door for her. He helped her out of the car and she smiled wide as her eyes overlooked the entire clearing. It was like a huge amusement park, only it was there temporarily. Aimée guessed it was the carnival set up by a group of gypsies. Elionor had told her it was great and recommended that she visited it, but Aimée had never been able to go. At least now she had someone to see it all with.

"They set up every year, and I thought you would like to come." Milan informed her with an excited smile.

She nodded her head. "Yes! It looks amazing. Thank you for bringing me here."

Milan gave a small shrug of his shoulders, "Its probably not as romantic as whatever Sasha did for you, but I think its the intention that counts. Do you want me to sing for you? I can sing for you if you want." He offered to her jokingly.

Her eyes brightened at his words. "Do you sing too?"

He quickly shook his head. "Not really. I sound horribly off key, Sasha got my mother's musical skills, but I'd do anything for you." He winked at her.

"That's okay." She grinned, placing a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "I sing terribly too."

-

after so long, there is finally an update for this story. and it took me all day to write this. but i had a lot of fun doing so. i really hope you all like it, and i hope you've been liking the story so far. it means a lot to me.

i hope you all had a great christmas.

have a blessed day!

-clary xx