Still Into You

Alex knows nothing about soccer. It’s pretty bad, if he’s honest with himself. He should know all there is to know and then some. But soccer is just…it bores him. The rules make no sense and sometimes hours go by and there’s still no score and God. He hates it so much.

But Matt is a soccer player. Has been since high school, where they first met. Alex was dragged to one of the games by their mutual friend Rian and, after sitting through the awful two hours of watching a bunch of guys chase a ball back and forth, he continued to drag Alex to the party at one of the team member’s houses. The party was almost as awful as the game, but Alex ended up hooking up with Matt and the rest was history. In every sense of the word. That was nearly ten years ago and now, Matt is a professional soccer player with a Nike Footwear endorsement and everything. Soccer. Of all sports. He picked soccer. Alex will never truly forgive him for that, forever being bitter that he couldn’t have picked football or baseball to be good at.

By now though, Alex has gotten pretty good at forgetting how much he hates the sport and putting all that bitterness behind him. Because when it comes down to it, Matt loves it and he’s good at it and it’s the least Alex can do to be supportive. So that’s why he’s sitting in the stands in mid-March at RFK Stadium in D.C., watching Matt chase a soccer ball with a huge smile on his face and red and black lines painted underneath his eyes like war paint (but those were totally against his will).

“Which one is Daddy?”

The four year old next to him has repeatedly asked the same question in ten minute intervals. And Alex has given her the same response, “He’s number eighteen, Reagan. Remember?”

“What’s eighteen?”

She knows what eighteen is. But there’s a time and a place for lessons on the number system and right now is definitely not it. So Alex lifts her into his arms and she wraps her arms around his neck, turning so she can get a better look at the field. “It’s this number right here,” He says, pointing at the back of the man sitting in front of them wearing one of Matt’s jerseys. “See? And Daddy’s over there chasing that ball.”

Her eyes widen as she looks to where he’s pointing. They’re not very far from the field, considering their relation to the team’s star player gets them some of the best seats in the whole stadium, so she spots him pretty easily for the millionth time that night. “Oh. He fast.”

“He is fast, Rae,” Alex corrects, but he’s not sure she’s even listening. Her eyes follow Matt’s figure across the field, looking like this is the most amazing thing she’s seen all day. She’s obsessed with Matt, so it’s not a surprise she finds every single thing he does amazing. It’s adorable and Alex doesn’t even really care that she couldn’t care less about his teaching profession. Why care about that when your other daddy is a hugely famous soccer player?

A year or two ago, she was too young to really pay attention to the whole game and Alex thought for sure she would grow up and be like him, having no interest in the sport at all. And that upset him a lot more than he expected it to, because he didn’t want Matt to feel bad if she didn’t want to go to his games. Alex would bring coloring books and picture books and download endless games on his phone just to keep her entertained during the long games, but now he doesn’t even need to bring more than a juice box and bag of pretzels (which is totally against stadium rules but whatever), because she’s more into the sport than Alex ever was.

D.C. United loses by one goal, giving them their first loss of the season and Alex a very upset four year old. She doesn’t voice her anger over the loss so much as pout over it and crumble up one of the many advertisement flyers that were given out at the entrance. She’s not exactly a fan of her daddy losing – hasn’t been since last season when she was actually able to understand the concept of winning and losing – and now this is probably going to put her in a bad mood for at least an hour. But Alex is a pro at this by now. Ice cream is clearly going to be their only option.

There’s a long hallway that leads to the locker room inside the stadium, and Alex and Reagan end up sitting in a few chairs at the opposite end while they wait for Matt to shower and talk to the press about the loss. It could take ten minutes and it could take up to an hour. By now they’re pros at waiting and also pros at Temple Run, because that’s Rae’s favorite game and the only game Alex is slightly good at.

“Jump!” she yells at him just as the locker room doors open twenty minutes later and Matt strolls out, hair wet from the shower. She doesn’t notice him yet, just taps at the screen in an attempt to make Alex play the game a little better. “Dad jump!”

Matt grins at Alex before bending over and scooping her up into his arms, making her shriek and kick her legs until she realizes it’s exactly who she’s been waiting for. “What are you yelling about?” Matt asks her, moving her so she’s resting on his hip, arms around his neck. “Are you being nice?”

She gives him one of her signature smiles that has Matt smiling right back at her, and Alex knows that he feels pretty shitty about the game he lost, but Reagan has always been able to brighten his mood. She looks extra adorable today, in her black leggings and team jersey with Matt’s name and number on the back and her sparkly pink cowboy boots. She coordinated her whole outfit on her own today and Alex thinks she did a pretty good job for someone who has two guys with absolutely no fashion sense to model herself after. Matt kisses her on the forehead and she rests her head on his shoulder as he reaches out to offer a hand to Alex. “Let’s get out of here and grab something for dinner,” he says as he pulls Alex up from the chair, “I’m thinking Panera.”

“Last week you told me you’re going on a cleanse,” Alex points out, grabbing his backpack from the floor next to the chair, “Am I supposed to still make you stick to that?”

Matt rolls his eyes and they start walking for the exit, where Alex knows there will be more reporters on the other side, (the ones who didn’t get locker room passes, aka the tabloid stalkers). “Babe, I’ve been drinking nothing but juice and shakes for that stupid cleanse for the past four days and I think my stomach is starting to digest itself. I quit.”

“It’s supposed to be good for you. Your trainer’s going to be pissed-”

“Rian will get over it. I’m starving and I’m eating at Panera.”

Alex doesn’t care what he eats, considering he’s the last person to even think twice about how healthy or not healthy something is, but he knows he’s going to probably regret it tomorrow when he has to stay at the gym for twice as long and Rian yells at him for “abusing his body and eating shitty things”. But he lost the game and that must suck pretty badly so Alex will just let it go. Besides, he likes Panera. He’s been craving their soup for days.

They’re only bothered by two people outside – one girl who claimed she was from E! News (but Alex had to call her out on that one because E! News doesn’t even care about soccer or soccer players unless they’re David Beckham) and some guy who wanted a picture with Matt. Alex is almost positive he’s the same guy who was outside the game last week too, but he says nothing and takes the picture for them while Reagan attempts to lift Matt’s gym bag that’s two times the size of her and twice as heavy. Matt has a lot of very dedicated fans.

“I think that guy totally tried to grab my ass,” Matt says when they’re in the car and Reagan is in her car seat, babbling about something to do with Dora the Explorer. But the second she hears one of the words on her long list of ‘bad words I should never ever say’, she stops everything and kicks the back of Matt’s seat.

“Daddy you said ass!” she yells, looking absolutely appalled at the fact that the word came out of his mouth.

Alex smacks Matt’s arm as he starts the car. “Nice job.” He turns around to check the rear window as he backs out of the parking space, hand on the back of Matt’s seat as he says, “And Reagan, you shouldn’t repeat the bad words Daddy says. Right?”

But she’s not listening anymore, her focus now on the built-in DVD player in the back of the seat, playing Cinderella for the millionth time this week. Last week it was Tangled, and the week before it was Beauty and the Beast. She changes her mind more often than Matt changes his diet plans and that’s saying a lot.

“You’re going to be the reason we get notes home from school about her bad language,” Alex mumbles as pulls out of the parking lot. “And I’m not going to be the one going to the parent-teacher meetings.”

“Well I’ll be too busy playing in games so I think that one’s going to be all on you. Besides, you can’t send me in there. Her teachers will swoon at the sight of a super-hot major league athlete in front of them. That’s what happened to you, remember?”

“First of all, you weren’t ‘super-hot’ nor where you a ‘major league athlete’. You were fifteen and in the middle of your worst acne phase and could barely kick a soccer ball more than ten feet. I’m sorry to remind you of the dark times, but don’t even. Also, as a fellow teacher I want you to know we don’t just ‘swoon’ over every hot dad that comes into our classroom. Only the single ones.”

“Well you teach third grade.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I just don’t think the dads of third graders are as hot as the dads of kindergarteners.”

“So you don’t think you’re going to be hot when Rae is in third grade?”

Matt shakes his head, “I didn’t say that. Less hot. I’ll still be pretty damn hot, just a little less hot than I am currently. Because I’ll be like, four years older.”

His logic is ridiculous, but Alex is used to it by now. They spend the next five minutes listening to Cinderella whine about not going to the ball before finally getting to Panera. Matt nearly falls over himself as he gets out of the car and Reagan follows right after him, unbuckling herself from her car seat (something Jack taught her while he was babysitting one day and Alex will never forgive him for) and she and Matt both make a run for the door, leaving Alex in the dust. And that’s pretty typical, really. The two of them are so wrapped around each other’s finger that it’s useless to think they would do anything separate anymore. And Alex doesn’t even mind. He and Reagan have their own bond so he can’t even be jealous of the way she worships Matt.

He finds them inside already at the counter putting in their order, and Matt grins when he sees him and pulls him over to his side. “I got you your usual,” he tells him, “But I hope you have your wallet because apparently I left mine in my gym bag.”

“Typical.”

After they pay and get their food, Reagan picks a table in the back corner of the room where there’s a TV playing Disney Channel in her line of sight. She ignores the turkey sandwich in front of her for the most part, and Alex knows he has to bribe her into eating it before they leave or she’s going to be starving later tonight.

“So, despite the fact that we lost, did you at least enjoy the game a little bit?” Matt asks him, giving him a knowing look.

“I always enjoy your games, moron. Why would I not enjoy watching you run around in shorts that put your a – your butt on perfect display?”

“Well I know how you actually feel about soccer.”

“If you like it, I like it. I find the good things to focus on and that includes watching you run around a field in shorts.”

Matt grins and leans forward and takes Alex’s face in his hands and kisses him. He hears Reagan yell something along the lines of oh yuck! because of course she stops paying attention to the show just in time to see some PDA and Alex pulls away from Matt to shush her and remind her to eat her dinner.

“Eat it here or we’re not getting ice cream.”

She sighs dramatically (something she totally picked up from Jack) and picks up half of her sandwich and takes a bite while looking back up at the TV. Matt just grins and laughs at him.

“Ice cream? You don’t even give her a chance to give you trouble, you just offer it up right away these days.”

“Hey, who cares? I want ice cream too so it’s a bribe that really benefits me.”

Matt smiles again and looks at him fondly for a few seconds before shaking his head. “I love you, you know that?”

“I’m aware, yes. I love y-”

“Would you love me even more if I was a baseball player? Or a football player?”

Alex pretends to consider it. He couldn’t care less what sport Matt chose as his career and he knows that Matt knows that. “Probably less. If you played baseball you’d have a pretty slim chance of staying on the same team for more than three years. If you played football you’d have to have a lot more muscle mass and you’d probably squish me if you wanted to. So no. Soccer is fine by me. Although…the football uniforms are pretty form-fitting aren’t they?”

Matt throws his napkin in his direction, scowling at Alex’s response. “Well I guess I should be grateful that you support me so much that you wear my jerseys to games. That’s pretty hot, by the way. Seeing you in my own jersey that has my name on the back.”

Alex flushes bright red, forgetting all about the fact that he decided to wear one of Matt’s spare jerseys that he leaves at home. It kind of hangs off his shoulders and doesn’t fit him quite as nicely as it fits the person it was actually made for, but whatever. He thought it looked good enough to leave the house in. And apparently, Matt agrees.

“You blushing about it makes it even better. And you even have face paint. God, you are so supportive. How did I get so lucky?”

Alex totally forgot about the face paint and the fact that he’s out in public somewhere other than a soccer game right now is really fucking embarrassing. “You could have reminded me about that.”

“But you look so cute with it.”

Reagan looks over at him, the other half of her sandwich in her hands this time and she says, “I painted you,” so proudly that Alex kind of can’t bring himself to feel so embarrassed about it anymore. “Now you’re pretty.”

And that has Matt doubled over, clutching his side as he tries to catch his breath from laughing so hard, and it makes Reagan look at him weirdly for a few seconds before deciding she doesn’t care why he’s laughing, and starts laughing along with him. And right there, sitting in Panera with his husband and daughter laughing at his expense, Alex can definitely say he’s exactly where he wants to be.