Rico and Anne had settled on the place, purchasing a townhouse in Kensington.
The location was perfect for their rapidly accelerating careers.
It was situated in the middle of their respective worlds, only a twenty-minute drive for Rico to Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground, and only twenty minutes for Anne to the soundstages where Les Misérables was scheduled to begin filming.
They had already pretty much moved in, ensuring that everything was mostly taken care of before their demanding schedules consumed them.
However, as they finished unpacking the master bedroom, they were stuck on one thing.
Rico stood at the foot of the bed, his hands resting on his hips as he stared down at the mattress, confused.
He turned his eyes to Anne, who was happily adjusting an embroidered cushion.
“Why do we need so many pillows?” Rico asked, baffled.
There were at least ten pillows of varying shapes and sizes stacked against the headboard.
Anne looked up, a bright smile on her face.
“It makes the bed look cute.” Rico let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head.
“It’s impractical.
You only ever need two.
What are these tiny square ones even supposed to support?” Anne laughed, stepping around the bed to wrap her arms around his waist.
“Come on, it ties the room together.
We can just put them on the floor before sleeping.” Rico looked at the mountain of decorative pillows, failing to see the logic of making a bed to dismantle it every single night, but as he looked down into Anne’s eyes, his stubbornness melted.
“Okay, fine,” Rico surrendered, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.
Later that evening, after stripping the decorative pillows off the mattress, the two of them finally got into bed together.
Anne rested her head against Rico’s chest, tracing idle patterns over his collarbone.
“When does your movie start filming?” Rico asked, his deep voice a comforting rumble.
“A couple days from now,” Anne answered, looking up at him.
“What about you?
When do you actually go in?” “I start tomorrow,” Rico stated, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, a familiar fire beginning to burn in his chest.
Anne frowned slightly, tilting her head.
“Already?” “Yeah,” Rico nodded.
“We’ve been here all week already.” The two had spent the last few days in total isolation, frantically trying to make sure everything in the house was perfect before the relentless grind of their careers took over.
“I still don’t understand your schedule,” Anne admitted, shifting her weight against his side.
“Your season starts next week.
What about your pre-season?” “They didn’t want me to join the pre-season camp,” Rico explained, brushing a stray lock of dark brunette hair behind her ear.
“Because there were only a couple of days left of the tour anyway, and they really wanted me to get settled into the house and the city before the season kicked off.” There was, however, another highly political reason.
Rico wasn’t going to tell Anne, as Fulham were desperately trying to keep it a secret from the press, but Rico only knew because his mother had squeezed it out of the club executives: the current squad was unsettled by his massive wages, and the manager wanted him insulated until the very last minute.
“How are you feeling?” Anne asked.
“I just want the season to start,” Rico said.
“I should be able to come to your first game against United,” Anne smiled, incredibly excited to watch him dominate in the Premier League.
“It’s going to be an interesting one,” Rico murmured, his dark eyes narrowing.
Rico had overlooked a crucial thing in his hubris.
The Fulham players had been asked in a national television interview earlier that afternoon about their honest opinions on the club’s new, record-breaking signing, as the interview wasn’t aired but it highlighted a glaring issue.
They were not trusting of the new signing.
And it wasn’t just a lack of trust; they were openly hating on their new player, and Rico didn’t understand what he had done to deserve it.
For the first time in his life, Rico was actually innocent.
Rico hadn’t even spoken a single word to these people before; he hadn’t stepped on their toes, and they were already hating on him.
Maybe it was because of the fact that he was being paid astronomically more than all of them, but that wasn’t his fault.
That was his market value.
Brian McBride, the veteran American striker, had been vocal.
“I don’t think you can bring in some eighteen-year-old from the MLS and really just think your team is going to turn around like that,” McBride had scoffed to the cameras.
“He can just hop on our bandwagon and do his part.” Rico wasn’t taking the word of a fading veteran that seriously.
He wasn’t the one hopping on the bandwagon; he was the horse pulling the wagon.
Then came Facundo Sava, the Argentine forward.
“Getting Rico might not even make a difference.
We don’t even know if he’s that good.” Rico wasn’t surprised by that comment in the slightest, considering where the guy was from.
Plus, the guy wasn’t even a regular starter, so Rico wasn’t paying it any mind.
But it was a lot different when it was your supposed captain.
Lee Clark, the veteran English midfielder and team captain, had been brutally blunt.
“We have better players than him in his position on our team.” A/N) Spoilers ahead.
So don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled.
I need to fill this up, so people don’t accidentally read past it.
This is the last time, I’m going to warn you.
I want to mention that I have warned you so anything you see here that you didn’t want to see is your fault.
Should Rico win the Ballon d’Or in 2004?
Shevchenko won that year with 36 goals and 6 assists in 51 appearances He only won two trophies that season.
But, I’ve mentioned before this is Rico’s Liecester, I want him to win the league with Fulham.
I think if he’s the best player at Fulham and he puts up 20 and 20 in all comps.
And Fulham win the prem, he’s up there and if he plays a role in his nation doing well at Copa America (Brazil won in 04) or Euros (I think they can win in 04 because Rico can help them get past Portugal, maybe Netherlands as well, as they can probably break Greece down) then he should win the whole thing.
Also, he needs to statpad his Ballon d’Ors, especially if he’s competing with Messi and Ronaldo.
So what do you think?
Should he win?