Footsteps moved through the administration block at a brisk pace rather than urgently.

A moment later, the liaison made the last turn down the corridor before stopping at the door at the end of it.

He knocked twice.

"Come in," Dawson said from the other side, prompting the liaison to open the door.

After entering, the liaison found Dawson and Nolan, standing over a model-sized replica of the DW pitch that had been set up across the main table with papers spread around a sort of chaos that only the one who did it would appreciate.

On the model sat small plastic coins across the pitch surface, each one marked with a player’s name, and from the way they were arranged, it looked less like a finished idea and more like an argument that hadn’t been resolved yet.

Neither of them looked up immediately.

The liaison crossed the room and stopped at the edge of the table before they finally acknowledged his presence.

"Gaffer," he said, and then he turned slightly. "Nolan."

Nolan looked up and gave a single nod while Dawson straightened and looked at him properly.

The liaison held out a folded piece of paper as Dawson also held out his hand to grab it.

"This is what has been finally confirmed as our pre-season fixtures," he said.

"It’s three games in a span of 2 weeks, which the owner’s been working on for a while, and it’s all confirmed now. He also made it clear that you might have at least one more or a couple more by the time you are done."

Dawson took the paper and opened it, and his brow went up before he’d finished the first line while the liaison continued.

"The first game is in ten days, which will see the team travelling away to Germany, where we will be playing Borussia Dortmund. At the Westfalenstadion, commonly known as the Signal Iduna Park."

Afterwards, he paused as the duo absorbed the piece of information, with Dawson doing nothing for a moment and just staring at the paper.

"The second game is AC Milan," the liaison continued.

Nolan, who had been quiet until this point, looked up from the coins he had been turning over in his hand.

"And the third," the liaison continued, "is Tottenham, who’ve just lost Kane to Bayern, so they’ll be going into the season differently from how they planned. Should be an interesting game."

Dawson read through the paper once more and then looked up.

"Seems like the owner pulled strings for this," he said as he read the extra piece of information on the paper that the liaison hadn’t addressed.

"Yes, he did," the liaison said.

"He wanted the club to have proper preparation by playing in games that would actually test the squad before the season began, and also because he wanted to gauge the team’s abilities."

Dawson smirked at that before shaking his head.

"Fair play to him," he said, and handed the paper across to Nolan, who took it and began reading too.

"The timeline," Dawson said, turning back.

"Walk me through it, that is, if you’ve planned already."

"Well, we have, and the first game in ten days means you’ve got seven, maybe eight days of preparation here before you’d need to fly. We’re thinking two days ahead of the Dortmund game to give the squad time to settle and do a light session over there before the match."

Dawson nodded slowly, working through it.

"As for the fans," the liaison added, "we’re in the process of making the announcement public, but we wanted you and the staff to have it first since the players should hear it before it goes out."

"Understood," Dawson said.

The liaison gave a small nod to each of them and then turned and made his way back across the room, pulling the door behind him as he left.

The room was quiet for a moment before Nolan set the paper down on the table and looked at Dawson.

"Suppose we should let the players know then," he said.

"Suppose we should," Dawson said, already looking back down at the pitch model.

Nolan moved toward the door, and as he did, Dawson’s eyes were already on the coins across the pitch surface, rearranging something as the door clicked shut behind Nolan and left him to it.

An hour later, the group chat notification came through at different times for different people, landing in the middle of whatever they were doing.

Fletcher was at home.

Broadhead was at the complex, and Jake, from what the three voice notes he sent within forty seconds of the message suggested, was in his car and had pulled over specifically to process the information at full volume.

The sandwich place was small and unhurried, same with the menu, which stated that they served just 3 things and did them well.

"Come back again," one of the servers said as Leo and Vittoria made their way to the door.

"We will," Leo replied as he pushed the door open and held it while Vittoria came through, cap pulled down over her bun, with the form of someone trying not to be looked at while being the kind of person people looked at regardless.

Leo fell into step beside her on the pavement after that.

"Three, huh," he said.

"Sorry?"

"Three sandwiches, Vittoria."

"Oh, come on. They were... normal-sized," she said while trying not to laugh at the expression on Leos’ face.

"Even I couldn’t get through my second!"\

She laughed at that while Leo spoke again.

"How do you stay slim if you eat this much. Must be hard work, isn’t it?"

"It’s strange," she said, "but I don’t really gain weight even when I eat a lot. It just doesn’t happen."

"I actually tried once. Eating more on purpose. I wanted to be a bit fuller in certain places." She glanced at him sideways. "Like my—"

Leo choked on his cappuccino and stood on the pavement, making a face like he could die any second, while Vittoria grabbed his elbow with both hands and started pulling him forward.

"Stop laughing," she said, which was difficult to take seriously given that she was also laughing.

"Leo. Stop. People are looking."

"You can’t just—" he started, and then couldn’t finish because the laugh came back.

"Walk," she said, still pulling. "Just walk."

He walked, still recovering, and she thrust a tissue at him from her bag without looking at him, which he took and pressed to his mouth.

A moment later, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

He gave it a moment, got himself together, and then pulled it out and read the message with watering eyes.

"Huh," he said.

Vittoria looked at him. "What?"

He looked up at her and said, "I might be coming to Milan soon."

Her brow went up while Leo turned the phone and showed her the message.

She took it, read it, and he watched her face move through mild surprise and then a smirk.

"That’s nice," she said, handing the phone back before she nudged him in the side with her elbow.

"I can show you around. Most of the time you were in Italy, was Rome, right?"

"Most of it, yeah."

"Then you haven’t seen anything," she said simply.

"Milan is way more fun."

"I’d like that," Leo said, and then he looked at her. "Although."

"Although what?"

"You’re showing me around Milan," he said. "That’s basically us announcing ourselves to your entire family. Milan’s their backyard, isn’t it?"

At that, Vittoria smiled suggestively.

"That’s what makes it thrilling," she said as Leo looked at her for a moment and then reached over and patted the top of her cap, twice, with the fond exasperation of someone who had run out of other responses.

"You’re something else," he said.

Vittoria looked straight ahead, still smiling.

"I know," she said before turning back to look at Leo.

"By the way, what do you mean by announcing ourselves. Is there something going on between us?" she said before walking away, while Leo just stared with a helpless expression before rushing to catch up to her.

By noon, Wigan’s official account had released the pre-season schedule for the team, and it was shocking to the fans, to say the least, because the list they were looking at felt almost too good to be true.

@Klopp_at_the_kop: Dortmund. Milan. Spurs. I need someone to explain to me how a newly promoted side is pulling fixtures like this because some mid-table Premier League clubs genuinely can’t get games of this calibre. How?

@pie_kicker_86 replying to @Klopp_at_the_kop: My brother in Christ, we were in the Championship LAST SEASON

@Klopp_at_the_kop replying to @pie_kicker_86: I KNOW THAT’S WHY I’M ASKING

@dw_faithful: We have an owner who is actually putting money where his mouth is, and it shows. It seems he’s eager to show he’s serious!

@footy_mercenary: Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion, though. The Yellow Wall. Our lot are going to walk out in front of eighty thousand people before the season’s even started. We are already baptising them in football heritage to prepare them for what’s to come.

@northstand_reg replying to @footy_mercenary: If Reyes doesn’t do something completely unhinged in front of that crowd, I’ll eat my season ticket

@tifo_no9 replying to @northstand_reg: He’s going to blow them a kiss, isn’t he? He’s going to stand in front of eighty thousand Germans and blow them a kiss, and I genuinely cannot wait.

@central_wigan: Can we appreciate that we’re playing Spurs in pre-season like it’s something normal. Our owner really said schedule the chaos.

@spurs_neutral replying to @central_wigan: as a Spurs fan, I genuinely have no idea what our team looks like right now, so this should be an interesting watch for both of us, honestly

@old_bank_end: I’ve been watching this club since before some of you were born, and after our relegation, I never thought I’d see the day we had a pre-season game against AC Milan. Won’t pretend I’m not emotional about it. Don’t.

-----

At this point, Leo had been to the airport more times than he could count, and it always seemed to be because of one person, save for a few occasions.

Vittoria had come on a whim, which meant she had packed on a whim and without too many bags.

After exiting the vehicle they came with, they stopped just short of the doors as she turned to look at him.

"I had fun," she said. "And I’m glad we talked properly. I needed that."

"Same," Leo said, and he meant both things.

She looked at him for a moment, like she was contemplating something and deciding whether to say it, but then deciding against it at the last.

Leo could see the moment she made the decision, the slight settling of her expression, and he said nothing to stop her because he already knew what he was going to do instead.

He stepped forward and reached out and pulled the front of her cap down, just slightly, until the peak sat a little lower over her face. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

She looked up at him from under it. "What are you doing?"

"You walk in there looking like that," he said, nodding toward the departures entrance, "and someone’s going to recognise you before you get to the gate."

"So you’re fixing my hat."

"Yes. And we also can’t have someone falling for you, too."

At that, her eyes widened slightly, mainly at what Leo had said.

She kept looking at him for a second longer before Leo reached out and put both arms around her and drew her in.

She made a small sound of surprise before her arms came up and found their way around him, holding onto him tightly and looking glad that it had happened.

"I’ll see you in Milan," he said quietly, and he could feel her smile against his shoulder before he heard it in her voice.

"You’d better," she said.

He pulled back and looked at her, and she was still smiling before she turned and picked up her bag and walked toward the entrance.

He watched her until the doors closed behind her.

Then he turned and made his way back out to the drop-off lane where the cab was waiting.

He got in and closed the door, and the airport fell away behind him as they pulled out into the road.

He leaned his head back against the seat before pulling out his phone.

Four days had passed since the fixtures were announced, and another four remained before the squad flew to Germany.

Suddenly, the Dortmund game, although a pre-season game, was starting to feel daunting.

A/N: Okay, guys. Sorry for the single releases. They are actually just two Chapters that I have crammed together since I want to get things over with in the least amount of Chapters, so you guys could save some coins. Things should be picking up after this, so we could be returning to the normal schedule in a bit. Thank you!