Hear Your Heart

Pulling her hair up into a loose ponytail, Olivia sighed gently, dreading the day which sat ahead of her. She knew that she had to go along with it, since she had told Iker about Thiago, she knew she couldn’t refuse him time with their son, but she wished it wasn’t in such a public setting. She wished that she could stay hidden.

It had been a few weeks, about 3 since she had paid a visit to Iker and after getting over the initial shock, the keeper had been around three times every week, spending hours on end fussing over their son. It was a beautiful sight, Iker looked perfectly at home with Thiago in his arms and Thiago seemed to love being around his father, and as much as Olivia wanted to keep things simple, part of her had fallen in love with that side of Iker. He was tentative, gentle and sweet and, for those brief moments where Olivia’s mind wasn’t fixed on what he had done to her, she adored seeing it.

She loved seeing Thiago smile, something he did almost endlessly around Iker, and it once more posed the question as to whether she had been to rash in ending things. Iker was still the same man, he was still the man who had been able to give her butterflies and make her blush, but she was always quick to dismiss the notion. Iker was a cheat and Olivia couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t.

“You know, we’re only going to the park”

Olivia, who had moved to brush her hair, stiffened fractionally before she nodded. “I know. I’ll be ready in a second” she noted.

Iker scoffed gently. “You always did take an age to get ready” he noted softly “It always used to amaze me because you’re so beautiful anyways, you always looked beautiful in anything you wore” he added, drawing a small sigh from the brunette. It wasn’t uncommon, in the three weeks that they had been back in contact, Iker had insisted on showering Olivia with a series of cute compliments, and Olivia knew he was testing her resolve. She had always been a sucker for him when he’d talked so kindly about her and she knew he was trying to use it to get back on her good side again, something the brunette didn’t want. She was civil, even polite, but to her, that was the extent of it. Iker was Thiago’s father, nothing more to her or nothing less, and she didn’t want it to change. She just wanted to keep things easy and simple.

Smoothing out her head, Olivia moved to place her sunglasses on the top of her head before she padded towards the door, only to be stopped by Iker who gently placed his hand on her wrist. “I wanted to ask you something” he murmured. Olivia merely bit down on her lip, trying desperately to stop the hint of pink that was itching to get onto her cheeks. “The first game of the season” he noted “It’s a home fixture and I was hoping that you could bring Thiago. I would love for the others to meet him” he explained gently.

Olivia swallowed. “I don’t know, Iker” she muttered, willing herself to stare down at her feet.

“Why not?” Iker returned “It’s just a game, Oli, and I know you love going to them. I would love it if we could raise Thiago to love it too” he noted.

“It’s not that” she noted.

“Then what?” Iker posed “Oli, he’s my son and I don’t want to hide him away. I’m proud of him” he added gently, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. He was proud, he had been from the moment he had first seen their son, and he wanted to show him off. Thiago was the best thing that had come from his relationship with Olivia and he saw no need to hide him away. He was wonderful and he knew that his friends were curious about the baby he had fathered.

Olivia sighed. “I will think about it Iker” she noted.

Iker shook his head. “What is it so hard for you to just say yes?” he muttered.

Olivia shook her head. “I just don’t….”

“That’s precisely the problem here, Oli” Iker interjected “You give a lot of thought to things you do and don’t want to do, but appear to give little thought to what I want. He’s my son too, Oli, and whilst you seem to know that, you don’t act like I am his father. You act like I am some moron who needs to be babysat when I am near him. You’ve not left me alone with him, you don’t seem to accept that I want the people in my life to know him, and it makes me question what it is exactly you want from me. Oli, please, explain to me what you want” he rambled.

Olivia sighed. “I am scared” she murmured “I am scared of leaving you alone with him, I am scared of your friends hating me and bad mouthing me in front of our son. I want you involved, Iker, that is why I came to you, but I need time to get my head around it. I need to learn to have some sort of trust in you again” she explained gently.

“Oli, I am not going to let anything dreadful happen to Thiago” Iker explained as he gently moved a hand to her face, causing her to flinch and move away from him “I am not going to let my friends bad mouth you, I am not going to run off with him. Oli, I know you don’t believe me, but I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you” he whispered, moving his hand over her cheek once more, his thumb lightly catching her cheekbone which made her close her eyes. “Trust me, Oli” he muttered.

Olivia quirked a smile that made Iker’s stomach turn. “I did trust you” she muttered “Completely and utterly and look where that got us” she muttered in a tone that stung the keeper. It was a new one, Olivia’s voice was bitter and sharp, and Iker knew that that was a tone he had instigated in her. He’d made her angry, he’d made her bitter, and clearly that wasn’t something Olivia was going to let go of all that easily.

“I will think about taking Thiago to the game, Iker” she murmured.

Iker, who still had her face held in the palm, nodded. “That’s all I ask, Oli” he noted.

Olivia nodded her head and pulled herself away from him, mentally cursing herself for not doing it sooner. “We ought to get going” she noted, padding out of the room. Iker watched after her and sighed, wishing that he knew what to do to make things better for them again.