The weather was a bit cold today. As usual, Messi was wearing a long sleeve shirt that almost hid his whole hands. The training session was already over about half an hour ago but most of the players are still loitering around the field. Mostly because the traffic outside the stadium are still jammed. Messi tried to find Verrati. His Italian friend were supposed to meet him after the session. Instead, he found himself staring at the heavily tattooed defender that was walking toward him.

" Leo, are you looking for Marco?" Ramos grinned at him.

" Yes." Messi still had to look up at the taller Spanish although the guy stood a feet away.

" You had a plan with him?"

" Marco asked me to accompany him to the newly opened sport store... it's not far away from here."

" Well, i guess he went to the toilet since he kept complained about his stomach just now. Come on, Leo. Do some tricks with me while waiting for him."

Please do not get him wrong. Most of the time, Messi always think positively when his teammates asked him to show some skills or challenge them. But since became a teammate with Ramos, he felt the defender was going soft on him. During old times when they were rivals, Ramos would brutally tackled him without giving any thoughts. But now every time Messi found himself tackled to the ground, his fall would be cushioned by the tackler himself. These happened too often to the point the others noticed it and made a joke about Ramos's redemption. Worst, Neymar made a comment about how Ramos tried to romance Leo since day one.

Hello... Have those people forgot that he has three sons with a very sporting woman named Anto?

Since Messi was staring at him confusedly without any answer (and yeah it's so adorable), Ramos assumed it was a "Yes". So he went and grabbed Messi's arm before dragged him to the middle of the pitch. 

"Oh...oh...Sergio, i haven't say anything yet."

"You didn't say 'No' too."

With a sigh, Messi let himself being dragged by Ramos. They played 1 vs 1 with a ball between each other for minutes before Ramos challenged Messi to bypass his defence. So Messi dribbled around his teammate and almost succeed before he felt a tackle from the Spanish.

It was a mild tackle but enough to make him fall to the ground. But instead of lying down on the grass, Messi found himself lying in Ramos's arms. They both stared at each other silently for a second. Then Ramos grinned when he saw Messi's eyes wildly blinked .

"Got you, La Pulga," his deep voice was so near to Messi it made the poor man blushed profusely.

"Do you have to manhandle me at every opportunity?" Messi struggled to free himself from Ramos but the defender did not let him go.

"You know, my missus told me a very interesting fact about you liking the manhandling things. Should i guess with whom she was gossiping with?" Ramos raised his eyebrows. And he was staring intensely at his lips with a clear intention. Are we going to kiss?

Messi cursed inside his head. He should have know this would happened when Pilar and Anto spent too much time together. He took back his word back minutes ago. Anto, you're a traitor!

"Hey, you two! What are you two doing there?"

Both Ramos and Messi looked up and saw Verrati along with Paredes were standing not far away from them. Paredes looked unhappy with a frown on his face.

"Lea, you're back," Messi greeted his friend happily, unawared of the glare Ramos received from his Argentine counterpart.

" Got a red card. The manager got angry with me. Since i'm not going to play for the next match, i might as well come here and see you guys."

"Yeah, typical Paredes."

"Like you're any better than me, Ramos. What are you doing with my captain?" 

By now, Ramos already let Messi stood up. He smiled at Paredes while patted Messi's shoulder.

"Nothing unusual. I'm tackling him with a new tactic. That's all. See you tomorrow, Leo. Bye, Marco."

Messi and Verrati waved at Ramos who then retreated from the field. After a while, Messi felt Paredes hugged his shoulder.

"I don't like him. He is flirting with you, Leo."

"Neymar is much worst. But i don't see you complain about him."

"Neymar never hurt you. And he is a player guy, he flirts with everyone. Even with a granny if he thinks she's hot."

Messi laughed and shook his head. Neymar was unofficially adopted by most of Messi's national teammates long time ago. But for Copa America Cup, all of them were willing to foul him for Messi. At least, they have no intention to harm him during their match. They knew it would upset their captain.

"Leo and i are going to the new sport store. Do you want to join us, Lea?" 

As Verrati drove his car away from the stadium, Messi was thinking about Ramos and his next tackle. Hopefully tomorrow, he would not do any weird tackle on him.