Chapter 2

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Fifa World Cup 2018... 


The atmosphere in the changing rooms is electric.

They hadn't just beaten Panama. They had thrashed them. Annihilated them. Everyone is feeling it, from the fans to the coaches to the players; everyone who is in one way or another wearing the England crest is buzzing to have a 6-1 victory under the belt. Jesse's incredible curve, Stones' double goal, and Harry's first-ever world-cup hat-trick have the entire stadium soaked in euphoria.

So, yeah. It's safe to say everyone is in incredibly good spirits when the team steps off the pitch, Dele included. He may not have been playing this particular match, but Dele is ecstatic about the win. He races into the changing rooms to congratulate his teammates and immediately finds Harry by the benches at the back, laughing with Ruben.  




he grins, lightly shoving Harry in the chest. "You did amazing and you know it. Captain Kane saving us again." Harry makes a very out of character move and stands up and pulls Dele into a full-on bear hug and Dele can't stop the wide grin covering his face and he can't contain the euphoria he feels.    




.... 






later on, the boys filter back to the designated hotel and head off to rest up after a cracking match. "No, No! not you!" Harry announces grabbing Dele by his arm as he turns to walk away from him. "You're coming with me!" Harry announces and basically drags a confused Dele outside and they walk a little bit to sit in the hotel grounds, just out of view. The night is clear and the stars are bright. Harry is still on a high from the match win, Dele knows this as they sit, or rather lay down on the grass looking up at the stars above them. Harry starts enthusing about one of the planets and Dele lets him go off on a tangent for a few minutes. He nods in all the right places and pretends to be taking it in, but really he's just watching Harry talk, watching the way his mouth moves around excitable vowels, the way he smiles at the end of every sentence. 


Harry Kane is brighter than any of these stars, Dele thinks.

"So you find the North star by following the question mark and then you just-"

Dele rests his head on Harry's shoulder and Harry seems to forget the rest of his sentence. He looks down at Dele and takes a slow, deep breath. Dele nuzzles into him a little, curious to see how Harry will react.

He thinks Harry might laugh, or shrug him off, or move away completely. But he doesn't. He leans in and kisses Dele's forehead, soft and gentle and quiet. Dele closes his eyes at the gesture and his entire body goes warm again.

Harry's arm finds its way across the back of Dele's shoulders and Dele snuggles up even closer. He knows this is too far now, knows that if someone were to come outside and see them, some serious questions would be asked. Dele doesn't think about what those questions would be, doesn't think about their answers. He just listens to Harry talk about stars.
"I Love spending time with you," Dele whispers to which Harry replies, "Me too, Delboy, me too, I love you, and I will always be here for you, you know that" Dele feels so good at this moment he almost feels like he's falling, everything from the win, to Harry's speech just now feel so good, and he wishes the two could, and always will be like this with one another.











Present Day 2019...  



Dele takes a deep breath as his head swirls from the alcohol he is not use to drinking before he opens the door to his blacked-out chauffeur-driven car outside Mayfairs Mahiki club, the press go wild and the camera flashes and men with cameras screaming his name, blind him and make him stumble a little. "Dele, Dele? anything to say?" they ask as he tells them to "Fuck off!" and stumbles inside with the help of the clubs security. His eyes meet his teammates immediately in the V.I.P players part of the club. He swallows and his eyes fill up with tears as his eyes also settle on a sheepish looking Harry Kane, sat with his former teammates. His sadness is soon replaced with anger though, and he storms towards them grabbing a Spurs shirt that is on the table and probably a fans shirt that needs signing. The team braces themselves for "Storm Dele" and some of them stand up. "Alright, Del?" Harry Winks and Son Heung-min ask in unison looking awkward, their hands finding the backs of necks. Shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. The rest of the team are seated well, not all of them. Only like, 7 Spurs players are in this club right now. But every single one looks awkward and guilty and do not really know where to look right now. Dele is drunk having consumed half a bottle of vodka at the hotel before coming here. 
"I'm alright! why wouldn't I be alright?" He snaps back with a hiccup his voice sounding far more emotional than he intended. "I just came to give you this!" Dele says making full eye contact with Harry Kane. "Dele, Don't say anything or do anything you'll reg--" But Harry doesn't get to finish the sentence as the Spurs shirt hits him square in the face-covering his face temporarily. Harry whips the shirt off and doesn't look impressed at all. "Hahaha," Dele laughs as if this is funny as all the other boys sit with serious-looking faces. "Screw this!" Dele says and turns to leave. "Dele!" Harry's voice is forceful from behind him but Dele ignores him. 



He feels Harry's hand curl around his arm. "Take your hand off me, Harry, I'm fine!" Dele says but he sways to the side a little, before steadying himself. "Really? it doesn't look like you are fine!" Harry snaps back with and Dele's face twists at him. "And you know why I'm not! THAT'S RIGHT EVERYONE HARRY KANE, MR SKIPPER KNOWS WHY I'M NOT FINE!" Dele shouts at the top of his voice, but it is lost on the loud music the club is playing. "You keep your voice down! you know I care!" Harry says into Dele's ear quite forcefully. And Dele stands locked in eye contact with him. "Clearly not enough." He says and pushes at Harry's chest before leaving the V.I.P players part of the club. Technically he is no longer a player, it just hurts still. 





As he reaches the bottom of the stairs the club has been clued up that Dele is in the building so are playing that stupid song by Cadet and Deno called Advice. Normally Dele cringes at this song, he is aware the song pokes fun at the iconic "eye celebration" he does when he scores goals, but as he looks back to Harry looking at him he begins to dance on the dance floor to the lyrics of the song.

"Just 'cause the girls got breast and batty

Don't have your eye on her, like Dele Alli
See the footwear, man it ain't too shabby
Got a 'ting older than me, calling me daddy 
Girl calm down it will be okay
Pulled up in a German, the EO way
Them girls see the boy and get mad 
Would'a thought it was a picture from Tion Wayne
Big back, had to grab it like that
Gotta grab my Snapchat quick
And snap it like that" Harry shakes his head and walks away as dele begins doing the eye celebration much to the delight of the partygoers and the paparazzi as they find their way into the club and begin taking pictures of a Drunk Dancing Dele. Great More Headlines to deal with. 







....












Back at Dele's hotel, he has been hugging the toilet bowl for the last 12 minutes, he vomits for the 3rd and hopefully the last time tonight! He sits his back to bath and begins to cry, how can someone go from having the world at their feet, literally, to this? it's not that he even wants to court the bad media attention. It's just up to tonight, he has had no contact with Harry over his "Coming Out Scandal" And that hurts. Dele thought out of everyone in the world, Harry would've been there like a shot, and it hurts to think he hasn't been. And in truth, he is missing the Football also, As he stands to his feet and looks into the mirror, he has to stare, he does not recognize the man, this man has smeared sick on the side of his mouth and his eyes are bloodshot, his hair is also slightly a mess. A far cry from the image he is widely known for, and certainly one he does not want to become known for! but the sorrow he is feeling right now is so strong it overpowers him and he begins to cry, yet again, he slides back to the floor and literally lays down on the bathroom floor sobbing and shaking, Dele though he had suffered heartbreak when England got knocked out of the World Cup 2018. And he was heartbroken don't get me wrong, but there was also a lot to be happy about that summer, And Dele would give anything to rewind the clock and live in that summer forever, right now. 















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