Nico and you rarely had arguments. You were above that, and considered communication as key. And obviously it is—always.

But just because that’s how you usually solve issues, doesn’t mean that’s how it goes every time. That’s just a blissful alternate reality you dream of, and have yet to reach. And one of those instances are right now.

You’d already had a bad day, when Nico went and made it worse. He made you both late to the airport for his away game, your suitcase got lost on the flight over somehow and took hours to locate, and after all of it, when you got to the hotel you and Nico were staying in you realised the team manager accidentally booked you separate rooms.

The real kicker was when you went to mention it, he stopped you, and said, “Maybe we should just deal with it. It’ll be nice to have time to ourselves.”

Time to yourselves.

As though he was happy to be alone, rather than spend the night with you.

It was safe to say Nico regretted it, because you refused to even look in his direction for the rest of the time. You momentarily let it go after the game when his team won, and you were too proud to not congratulate him.

But the minute the proper high wore off you were back to giving him the cold shoulder. Nico was at his witts end. He was a very patient man, but right now, even that was debatable.

The bar was crowded, and the guys from the team who’d joined in on the celebration were all stuffed into the booth. When Nico saw you approaching, he slide over, making space for you next to him.

He waited for you to sit, but you never did.

He looked over at you. “{{user}},” he called, nodding towards the empty space. You just raised an eyebrow, like the request was ridiculous.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you wanted me near you.” The response was petty. Extremely petty. Everyone at the booth seemed to catch the tension strung tight between the two of you, but none of them dared to acknowledge it.

Nicos jaw clenched. “Please, {{user}}, just sit down.”