Somewhere Only We Know

Staring at the envelope that still sat on the table, Iker sighed, his head spinning with Ariana’s words. She was, at least in part, right about them. They did fight, they did patch things back together and then they did fight again, but Iker wasn’t prepared to let this time be the end of them. Ariana was more of a fighter than she was letting on and he knew he needed to draw it out of her. Their marriage was worth fighting for and he wasn’t about to change his mind about that, Ariana and Violeta were all that he wanted and he wasn’t going to let them leave him behind, no matter how much easier it would be, he wasn’t letting go.

“Are you going to sign them?” Cristiano poked as he looked at his captain. A few of the other players had turned up a couple of hours ago to check on the keeper and they were all a little worried about what they had found. Iker looked a mess, a bottle of whiskey had been unsuccessfully hidden underneath the couch, and there was no doubt that Iker had drunk it. He smelt like a brewery.

Iker sighed. “No” he replied stubbornly.

“Why?” Cristiano posed as he tentatively sat down beside the Spaniard. “Ariana clearly isn’t going to change her mind. Why don’t you just give her what she wants?” he questioned gently. He didn’t want to upset the keeper, Iker had proved volatile in the last week, but he was curious. Ariana had been perfectly clear about what it was she wanted and Cristiano didn’t see why Iker didn’t just give it to her. It would give him the chance to be happy again and that was something everyone wanted for him. The keeper had changed immensely in the eight little days that had passed since he and Ariana had separated.

Iker snarled a little, but kept his stare on the envelope, not wanting to lash out at Cristiano. “Because I love my wife, because I want us to have a marriage, because this is just another little bump in the road. I am not letting her go Cristiano, not like this, we have something wonderful to fight for and I am not giving up. Ariana will see that this is a mistake, it is only a matter of time” he grumbled.

“Iker, she thinks you slept with her sister” Gareth interjected from the door way “No girl is just going to get over that” he added.

“I didn’t sleep with Lucia” Iker objected.

“You don’t know that” Karim mused “You don’t know a thing about what happened that night and that is why Ariana is trying so hard to leave you. If you don’t know what you and Lucia did, how can Ariana not think the worst?” he posed.

“Because she knows me” Iker spluttered “Because she knows that I would never hurt her” he added.

Sergio sighed. “When you thought she cheated on you with that ‘Finn’ guy, you were very quick to get rid of her. You called her a cheating puta and stormed off to your parents. Iker, this is no different. She thinks you cheated. Don’t you remember how that feels?” he pressed.

Iker sighed a little. He did remember how it felt, it had been like the floor had opened up beneath him and swallowed him whole, but he didn’t see why Ariana couldn’t believe him. He had never hurt her, not intentionally, and he didn’t see why she thought that he had started. Iker loved her far too much to even contemplate sleeping with another woman, let alone to sleep with Lucia. “I need to prove it” he whispered.

“How? There’s no CCTV in the hotel room Iker, how can we prove that you didn’t sleep with Lucia?” Karim noted.

“He has a point Iker. The only person that knows what happened that night is Lucia and the chances of her being honest are slim to none. She’s got you and Ari right where she wants you” Sergio sighed.

“I don’t care how it happens Sergio, I don’t care if I have to kill Lucia for it, I need to prove to Ariana that this didn’t happen. I am going crazy without her and I don’t think I can put up with much more. I just want her home” he murmured, tears stinging the corner of his eyes. He felt pathetic, he was sure that Ariana was finished crying over him, but he couldn’t stop it. Eight days had felt like forever and he was no closer to getting her back.

Sergio looked at his friend softly before he sighed. He hated the look that marked Iker’s face, the mix of pity and pain, and he felt terrible. If he and Unai had not teased him so much, then Iker would never have made his way to the bar and would never have met up with Lucia, something which would have avoided all of the pain that had been caused. “Iker, I don’t know what to do” he murmured.

“Then figure something out” The keeper yelled, causing the others to jump “I am going crazy without her” he added pathetically.

Sergio sighed gently and peeked around the room, wordlessly asking the others for idea. He wanted to help Iker, of course he did, but there was very little they could do. Ariana was stuck on the idea that Iker had slept with Lucia and there was no way of disproving it. Lucia would never tell the truth, not unless it benefitted her in some way, and Ariana wouldn’t believe Iker, no matter how much she wanted to. Sergio knew that it was the uncertainty that had driven her to present Iker with the divorce papers and Sergio couldn’t blame her for it. He doubted he would have been able to look at Pilar if he thought she had slept with his brother.

“What if we made her tell the truth?” Cristiano poked.

“How?” Iker sighed.

“You said once that she was obsessed with the idea of being a WAG?” the Portuguese man prodded.

Iker nodded. “It is the reason she asked Ari to break up with me the first time she found out about us” he confirmed.

“Then why don’t we make her one? I am not exactly dating anyone right now, what if I flirted with her? Perhaps I could get her to tell the truth” Cristiano mused with a little shrug. It wasn’t the best plan, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it was something and something was a lot better than the fat load of nothing that they had come up with previously.

“You think that you could?” Sergio pressed.

Cristiano nodded. “I am sure that I could. I am rather charming” he quipped with a smirk.

Iker looked up at the winger. “You’d do that for me?” he whimpered.

“Of course captain, you’d do it for me” Cristiano grinned in return.

Iker smiled a feeble smile before he murmured a soft thank you. It wasn’t the best plan, there was no guarantee that Lucia would want to be anywhere near Cristiano, but it was a step in the right direction. All Iker needed was proof and he would have any anything to ensure that he got it.