Soccer/Football Imagines

Lionel Messi [~] Clean Up Act

For life-water: Lionel Messi

Cari was going to strangle her sister, literally strangle her sister to death. It was her sister's, Melissa, twenty third birthday, and since Cari had been out of town for her sister's past three birthdays, she promised to make it up to Melissa by throwing her a party. Cari and her sister shared their parents old home, before their parents had decided to divorce and move to smaller homes separately.

It was a large house, perfect for a party. Cari had told Melissa that she would take care of everything for the party, all Melissa had to do was invite all of her friends, family, etc. that she wanted at the party, since Cari didn't know most of them. Well, Cari had nearly blown her top when she saw the amount of people her sister had invited to the party.

"Melissa!" Cari hissed to her sister, who was in the middle of a conversation with one of her teammates. Melissa was on the women's Barcelona team and, consequently, most of the people at the party were a part of the Barcelona family.

"What?" Melissa replied, confused as to why her sister was so frazzled.

"Who are all of these people?!" Cari waved her arms around frantically. "I've never seen any of them before in my life!"

"Oh, they're just friends from work," Melissa shrugged.

"Friends? Melissa, I swear—" the doorbell rang, causing Cari to stop mid-sentence. "We'll finish this conversation later." Cari wiggled in between people to get to the door. Throwing open the door, she did a double take. "Melissa!" she shouted, closing the door in the guys' faces.

"What is it now, Cari?"

"Why is the Barcelona men's team on our doorstep?" Cari loved Barcelona, she had since she was a child. The fact that they were standing at her doorstep, however, unnerved her a bit.

"Because I invited them?"

"Melissa," Cari pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine, whatever. Why didn't you invite just all of Barcelona to the party?" Cari exclaimed, throwing the door back open. "Please come in, sorry about that," she smiled to the guys. They smiled back and walked inside. Cari closed the door and prayed that her sister or whoever she had invited wouldn't destroy their house.

People eventually started to leave when the food and drinks ran low and the cake had been cut. Cari was basically the doorwoman for half an hour until only a fraction of the people her sister had invited remained, which was still a large amount of people by Cari's standards. Luckily, most of them had conjugated in the game room, leaving the living room relatively empty. Seeing the mess, Cari groaned.

"Might as well start. Melissa will be of no help in the morning," Cari sighed, grabbing a broom her mother always kept in the closet and started sweeping up the cups, plates, and other miscellaneous stuff on the floor.

"Do you need any help?" came a voice from behind Cari. Jumping in shock, Cari dropped the dustpan, causing a cloud of dust to surround it. Her shoulders drooping, Cari turned to look at who had spoken. Realizing who it was, Cari straightened up immediately. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to threaten you," Lionel Messi replied, motioning to the dustpan on the ground.

"Oh, it's no problem. Melissa did that all the time when we were kids," Cari shrugged, going back to sweeping.

"Do you need any help?" Leo repeated.

"No, it's fine. This isn't the first mess I've had to clean up courtesy of my sister," Cari huffed, running a hand through her hair.

"I insist. My teammates are sometimes pigs," he chuckled, bending down and grabbing a few cups and plates on the ground for Cari. They chatted as they worked.

"So how do you and Melissa know each other? The only guy she ever mentions is Rafinha," Cari asked.

"The men's and women's teams train together sometimes. We kind of just became friends that way, I guess," Leo mumbled, holding a trash bag out for Cari to dump trash in.

"She's very talkative and outgoing," Cari agreed.

"She never mentioned you though, to any of us really," Leo said, tying the trash bag closed.

"I'm not that interesting to talk about," Cari stated. "And I'm not always as around as Melissa would like."

"Why not?"

"I'm a top business official for one of Barcelona's top fashion agencies. The job takes me across the globe and I'm gone a lot."

"Well, do you like it? Your job, I mean," Leo questioned, throwing the fourth trash bag into the garbage can.

"Not as much as I used to," Cari admitted. "I'd love to actually design things, but I'm not nearly good enough to make it in the fashion industry as a designer."

"If you put your mind to anything, you can accomplish it. A lot of people didn't believe in me, or any of my teammates, but we pulled through," Leo smiled. Cari smiled back. The both of them rested on the couch after the living room, kitchen, and bathrooms had been cleared of debris. "Do you like football?" Leo asked suddenly.

"I watch as many Barcelona games as I can, and I grew up in a football household, so yeah I guess I do," Cari responded.

"Did you play?"

"I did. Then I tore my ACL's in an accident and the doctors told me that I could play anymore," Cari sighed, remembering the fateful day.

"I'm sorry, I wouldn't know what I would do without football," Leo replied.

"It was a long time ago," Cari brushed it off. "I wasn't that good anyways." Leo, seeing a football on the ground a little distance away, smiled widely. Getting off of the couch, Leo walked over to the ball and skillfully flicked it into his hands.

"Why don't we have a little juggling contest? I'll go easy on you," he winked jokingly. Cari laughed.

"I'd love to." The two walked out to the small backyard. "Guests first," Cari offered, stepping back. Leo nodded and did a few tricks, passing the ball over to Cari. Smiling at the familiar feel of the ball at her feet, Cari bounced the ball skillfully on her feet. Kicking the ball high in the air, Cari hit the ball with her heel and trapped it under her foot. Smiling at Leo's surprised expression, she passed it back. Their little juggling war continued for a bit, before they both decided it was a tie, even though Cari insisted that Leo was a thousand times better than her.

"You're very good," Leo commented, as they both lay and watched the stars.

"Thanks, that means a lot coming from you." Before Leo could reply, the glass door to the backyard opened, and Melissa stumbled out, dragging Rafinha behind her. Both were obviously a little tipsy as they laughed at each other.

"And this is my bedroom," Melissa stated, gesturing around to the backyard.

"I should probably put her to bed," Cari sighed, standing up.

"And I should probably drive him home," Leo sighed as well, standing up next to Cari.

"It was nice meeting you, I hope we can see each other in the future," Cari smiled. Leo agreed as they both pulled Melissa and Rafinha into the house. Rafinha refused to get up from the kitchen floor, resulting in Leo literally dragging him to the door.

"Thanks for having us."

"You're welcome any time," Cari giggled as Rafinha held onto Leo's leg and refused to let go. Leo finally got Rafinha into his car and waved to Cari once more before departing. Turning to her sister, who was passed out on the couch, Cari sighed. "My turn," she muttered, grabbing her sister's arms and pulling her towards the staircase.