The game and love

48

Draco felt the two weeks leading to the biggest game of his life taunted him with how slow they seemed to move. He was in Tampa Bay with the team, so it wasn't like he had anything else to think about besides the game. He felt jealous as he saw most of his teamates relaxed and happy. Some partying at night or, just sitting around in their cliques making casual small talk. The intensity of his feelings was inescapable. He wanted to just scream, or atleast hurl himself through a ground floor window, just to relieve the pressure. It was maddening.

"Come on over here dude." Cruz called to him, a beer in his hand. He lead Draco to a table where a few offensive linemen including the rookie Mike Golic Jr. sat eating food. "We need you to judge our eating contest. Draco shook his head in disgust, he just hoped this would end better than the last time they'd had this contest and Draco got a lap full of have digested hot dogs as a prize. He looked over the table and decided anything was better than being alone with himself right now.

"Here are the rules." He stated, pointing at each plate of hot wings in front of the contestants, willing and drooling. "The bones must be bare, or clean to my judgements. The winner will get the recognition as the most powerful man on the team. Which means the others must buy him the rest of his meals while we are here." Several excited grunts were heard and Draco tried his best to not laugh at these men. He had to be honest, he may be built, but one swing from a tree trunk arm of these men, he might be dead. "Ready?" He raised his arm up. "Eat!" He barked and he watched in amazement at they attacked their plates with violent determination.

It was chaos and fun. Draco got into the act and cheered on his teamates and clearly forgotten his thoughts from minutes earlier. He watched intently, so he could be a fair judge and award the prize to the true winner. Once the timer that someone had set up went off, Draco called the contest. He examined each plate thoroughly and came up with a winnner. He raised Mike Golic's hand. The rookie had won by atleast ten wings, but that didn't stop Cruz Corona, big mass that he was from voicing his displeasure.

"I called bullshit!" He yelled to the table of men. Their faces were all screwed up from having eaten so much in so little time. "You are clearly biased because he plays offense." Draco tried not to laugh. Although he had to admit, the rookie played well on the offensive line this year. Not perfect, but better than anyone else had played all year. He smiled at Cruz and turned to the rookie.

"Mikey? Am I biased?" Draco asked. Mischievous grin all over his face.

"Hell yeah you are boss!" The young man grinned. "We talked right before this happened obviously." His sarcasm was evident.

"Would anyone else care to attack my integrity this evening?" Draco asked, feigning indignation.


Harry sat in the nursery reading a story to Lucius, who was attentively looking at the bright pictures and slapping his tiny hands against the pages as if that would bring them to life. Harry had found ways of distracting himself, if he hadn't he'd likely be worried about Draco. Glued to the tube hearing how his team was the underdog or how the ESPN experts thought Draco was an overrated Quarterback. It would drive him mad and he knew it.

"And the little train said to all the other little trains, look out the bridge is broken." He pointed to the pictures. And Lucius was giggling as Harry nuzzled his head with his nose. He continued reading on when the phone rang. He rolled his eyes. Thank god for caller ID. The people that were calling now were awful. All strangers claiming to be somehow related to Draco in order to try and get tickets for the superbowl. "Sorry Lucius, Papa has to answer this. He saw on the ID that it was Scott.

"Hey Scott, what's going on?" He asked, slightly with the feeling this call was about something he'd forgotten. "Listen, get to the meat of it, I have a moody baby here." He said half joking.

"Remember when we put your name down to play at the superbowl?" Harry's eyes searched his memory truly confused. He'd done many things he didn't remember. "No." He said simply as he was sure he didn't have any memory of any such event.

"Well we did." Scott breathed audibly. Harry knew he wouldn't like the next sentence that came out of his manager's mouth. "The bands they had scheduled couldn't make it or something. The NFL just called and asked if you were still available." Scott tried to rush the words out, as if Harry might somehow miss that last part.

"What did you tell them?" Harry asked. His tone on the edge of nervous anger.

"I told them I had to see, but Harry, you can't throw this opportunity away." Scott seemed dead set on Harry singing.

"Scott, I have a baby here you fuckwit." Harry wanted that to be a good enough excuse, but for some reason, he had the feeling that he would regret it if he didn't go. He breathed out angrily. "Alright, but I have demands." Harry stated warning his manager.

"Done." Scott yelped. His excitement clear through even the telephone. "I'll talk to you later. Bye for now."

"Bye." Harry said and hung up the phone, wondering what the hell just happened.

Draco and Ron sat in the big media day press conference answering questings and giving quotes. It was at this point that Draco realized just how lucky he had been most of his career to be tucked up in Seattle where the national media doesn't bother going unless a major story comes about. He had been here his rookie year, but since he was only the backup QB at the time, he never had to deal with the media. The only satisfaction he could draw from this expirence was that Ron looked even more unsettled than he did and that made him smile cruely.

"Sight adjustments? When I am runnings routes you mean?" Ron asked a reporter to clearify what she was asking. He nodded and continued his answer. "I think part of it is chemistry. Then again, I've known this guy since we were five. Sometimes, I'll see somthing and I know Drake won't miss it either and I go ahead and adjust what I am doing. It's like being in his head sometimes."

This caused Draco to laugh and before he could stop it, the water he'd been drinking came spiting through his teeth causing everyone to burst into a short fit of laughter. Once he had composed himself and wiped up some of the mess on the table, he flashed a bright smile and nodded to the next reporter to ask his question.

"Did you ever think this team would be as good as it's been this season?" The man asked.

"I think I did actually. I think everything just came together this year with the defense and the offense added some things we were missing." Draco took another sip of some water. Cameras flashed, but he had learned to get over their distraction after the first few hours.

"Things like a probowl tightend?" The man asked, clearly enjoying rehashing this subject for the billionth time.

"Well there's that. There's Jay Bennett the running back, there's also the rookie left tackle Mike Golic Jr. He's been brilliant this year." Draco continued to smile, but he swore, just one more Ron Weasely question and not even Jesus would be able to stop him.

Ron and Draco were finally freed after another hour of questions. Thankfuly, all the Ron Weasely questions were out of the way. "Damn I hate you right now." Draco shook his head smiling.

"I hate me too. You'd think we're some hot hollywood couple or some shit." Ron chuckled.

"What? You mean we're not?" Draco frowned and playfuly snaked his arm across his friend's shoulders.

Ron shoved it away. "pfft. You're not my type."

"Hey, fuck you, I'm awesome." Draco faked exasperation.

"I didn't say you weren't, just not my type." Ron grinned.

They joked this way all the way back to the hotel where they were staying. As they entered the hallway that lead to their rooms, purposely aimed himself at Cruz, who was walking with his wife Lucy out to the dinning area. The two men glared at eachother.

"Corona." Ron snapped, clear disgust in his voice.

"Weasely." Cruz sneered. Equal disgust in his own voice.

"Boys, play nice." Cruz's wife called between them. Cruz walked away, keeping eye contact as long as possible.

"What's with you guys?" Draco asked, smiling in his bit of confusion.

"I don't know, we just hate eachother." Ron shrugged.

They left that odd bit of conversation out in the hallway as Draco unlocked their room. He came in and even though the room was small for two people, he thought it huge compared to the media day accomodations. He picked up his cell phone from the bed where he'd left it. Once he left his phone on vibrate and scared the shit out of himself during a press conference. It was all the reminder he ever needed ever to make that mistake again.

He looked at the numbers of two missed calls. One from his sister Liz, the other was from Harry. He didn't know why Harry would call now, they'd see eachother in a couple of days atleast. Not that Draco minded in the least. Yes, he was exhausted, but Harry's voice was soothing, maybe he'd ask him to sing him a song or something.

The phone rang four or five times before Harry could get to it. He answered hastily and out of breath.

"Hello?" He answered. Out of breath, having also not checked the ID.

"Hi love, did I make you run to the phone? You sound like you were running." Draco had concern in his voice.

"I'm alright Dray, I just was in the other room with Lucius." Harry said, his breath finally caught and he relaxed.

"You didn't throw him across the room when you heard the phone ring did you?" Draco joked with a small laugh.

"No, no, I didn't." Harry smiled. "Listen, I have news." Harry's voice turned serious. "I'm going to be in the superbowl halftime show." He said. Then went silent. The awkward silence made him nervous.

"Wasn't someone else doing it?" Draco asked awfuly confused.

"Yeah, but some kind of issue came up. I put my name on the list months ago. I even forgot I did, till today." Harry couldn't understand Draco's reaction. "Do you think I should do it?" Harry was now sure he'd made some kind of horrible mistake.

"Yeah of course!" Came Draco's excited reply. "It'll be great. We can both put on a show on the biggest day of the year." Draco felt bad about his inital reaction. He didn't even comprehend fully what was going on.

"Well then, I will see you in a couple of days." Harry said, feeling the change in Draco's voice. "I love you." Harry said softly. "I love you too sweetie!" Draco said and the phone clicked off and he hung up.

"What's going on?" Ron asked Draco from the side of his own bed.

"Harry's going to sing for us in the halftime show." Draco said a smile on his lips.

"Wow." Was Ron's only response.


Harry had arrived in Tampa a few days ago, thinking he'd have had atleast one chance to see Draco, but the rehersals had taken almost all of his time. The days wouldn't have normally been so long except that the NFL was admant about being able to see the show before the show as it were. His band was warming up as he fidgeted waiting for the call for mic check. He was irritable and tired, but anyone might be after 13 hours. Kyle was his lead guitar player and best friend in the band. He guessed Kyle was a comfort because at 6'9" and blonde with blue eyes, Harry couldn't help confusing the man with Draco. Somtimes catching himself in the act of calling the wrong name.

Darren Hayes was the man keeping people light on their feet with his jokes and things. Darren was the second part of the show. Harry had met Darren while in London on a promotional tour. They'd hit it off and had agreed to work together on Harry's next record. Darren was one of the first demands he made that Scott had somehow managed to pull off.

"Hello you complete wanker." Harry was shocked out of his thoughts by the statment made by Darren.

"Sorry." He apologized and got up out of his chair.

"shut up, I have something to tell you." Darren licked his lips. "It's kind of a super surprise. You can't tell a soul." When he finished those words. In walked Daniel Jones. "You're speechless right?" The words described exactly how Harry felt right now.

It wasn't until the night before the big game that Draco and Harry laid eyes on eachother. Even then, both were too exhausted to appriciate eachother properly. Draco had spent the last few days getting his family settled along with some of Harry's and Harry had been completely occupied by rehersals. While not in themselves completely unsatisfying. His voice was strained a raw. It was evident when he spoke that he was trying to save it.

They had some dinner that Ron brought to the room for them. They had to be careful, because it was against team rules to have anyone not a member of the team in your room the night of a game. Not that these rules weren't almost always broken right under the coaches noses. Draco had decided to entertain Harry by talking up a storm about his week and how he was feeling. Harry didn't mind at all. His occasional nods and 'yeahs' kept Draco on a tear. They both sat and enjoyed their food and put off thinking of what they'd both be doing tomorrow.

When Draco finally got tired and Harry had hidden away during the last lights out call, they climbed in bed together. They both were relaxed for the first time in ages and both nearly fell asleep right there.

"Draco, you still awake?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"Yeah." Draco said. Running his hand over Harry's shoulder as he pulled him closer.

"Let's both do well tommorrow." Harry said, fighting sleep.

"Yeah." Draco smiled softly and kissed his love's forehead.

End chapter 48
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A/N: Read chapter 49