Chapter Text
It started after the England Norway game. But, if Jude was being completely honest, he knew something was wrong about 3 days before that, when they first touched down in Miami. It was slight enough that Jude knew he had to play through it. He felt mostly fine, until around an hour after the match.
The walk down to the team's doctor felt long. He was praying with all his might that the room was empty.
Luck wasn’t on his side. When he peeked his head into the room, he saw none other than Harry Kane, with an ice bag around his ankle. Mark was sitting at his desk, typing away at his laptop.
“Jude! What can I help you with?” Mark flicked the laptop screen half down and turned to face Jude fully.
“Can Harry leave or does he have to stay?” Jude cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Unless you want his sprain to get worse, he has to stay,” Jude grimaced. Fuck. He supposed that out of all the Alphas on the team, Harry was the best one to hear this.
“I’m going into heat.” Jude said, not bothering with any waffling. Mark’s eyebrows crawled up his head, but it was Harry who spoke first.
“But you’re on suppressants.” He paused. “Right?” He had pushed himself up in his bed.
“Of course I am,” Jude snapped. He wasn’t stupid. They had a nutritionist breathing down their neck, and everyone took their suppresants together to make sure everyone actually did. Jude would never, ever, risk his football career by not taking them.
“But then how? And are you sure?” Jude took a deep breath at Harrys questions. God that man was thick sometimes.
“That’s why I bloody came down here isn’t it Harry.” Alright, maybe Jude’s plan of not snapping wasn’t working so well.
Mark was back to typing on his computer. “Well, you are due for your heat, but your suppressant dose was upped to counteract. You might’ve missed a dose?” Mark said questiongly.
Jude shook his head vigorously and took to pacing around the room. He was clenching and unclenching his fists. Having his heat at this point, with their next match 5 days away was borderline catastrophic.
“Alright, well then either the stress was high enough to just completely subvert the suppresants, or you recently came in contact with your mate after a long period of time.”
At his words, Jude felt himself freeze in place. “Fucking shit.” He could vaguely feel his control over his scent slipping, letting the rotten scent of his distress bleed into the room.
“So I take it, it was the second one then?” Mark said lightly. Jude could feel himself shaking all over, a ridiculous amount frankly.
It took him longer than it should have to notice that Harry was calling him over. But despite hearing the pack Alpha call him over, Jude couldn’t move.
How could he have been this stupid? When first mated, it was drilled into the new mates head that meeting after long periods of separation could throw them into a heat or rut. He thought back to the game, to the casual brushes that he shared with Erling. And now, he’s gone and screwed the team up for the semi-finals. Golden Boy Jude Bellingham lets England down.
“Jude!” His head snapped up. Harry, sweet and protective Harry, had let his voice drop into the Pack Alpha register, demanding Jude’s attention. “Finally. Come sit here.”
Jude looked at the empty chair that had appeared by Harry’s bed. Despite his earlier inability to go, he now felt like he couldn’t not go. Once he had taken a seat, he felt Harry’s hand come up to his neck to gently scruff him.
Harrys thumb and pinky were on each of his scent glands, and he could smell Harry’s soft, grassy scent enveloping him. He dropped his head into his hands. Above him, he heard Harry call Tuchel.
Say what you will about Thomas Tuchel, but one of his greatest qualities was his lack of care about designation. He never treated Jude, Bukayo, or Ant any differently for being omegas, and didn’t seem to care any more for the Alphas. He only cared about your ability to play football. He also had an amazing ability to problem solve. Maybe, just maybe, this would turn out okay for Jude.
He wasn’t sure how much time passed before he heard the door open, and Tuchel walked in.
“What’s wrong?” His voice slid through the room. Harry hadn’t stopped scruffing him, and Jude couldn’t find it in him to shake Harry off, even though he despised looking weak in front of his coach.
When Jude didn’t immediately speak up, Harry responded. “He’s going into heat. Based on his reaction, we think that he had contact with his mate after being separated for the tournament. Add on stress and the fact that he’s due for heat anyways…”
Tuchel frowned. “Alright. Well if contact with his mate started it, his mate is obviously nearby. Why don’t we just have his mate come in and deal with it?”
“No!” Jude let out. “We agreed. We agreed when I signed on that I didn't have to tell you who my mate was.” His voice was strangely shaky as he looked up from his hands. Harrys grip on his neck got more firm, and Jude felt himself unwittingly relax into the touch.
“What are our other choices Mark?” Tuchel said, by way of response.
“Well, with our high level suppresents and the comforts we can provide, he could just ride it out. He would probably be out of commission for two days, and uncomfortable for at least one more. If he wasn’t mated I would suggest having a compatible teammate help out, but obviously not.” Mark shrugged. “If we got his mate in, he would be out for one day, and then, maybe have one more day of soreness.”
“Well. That’s that then Bellingham. I’ll get a bloody NDA written up if it means we can get your mate in here.” Tuchel turned back to Jude, who had switched to staring up at the ceiling, leaning into Harrys hand.
Jude didn’t respond. He just stared up at the white popcorn ceiling and let the AC brush over him. Erling was meant to fly back to Norway, enjoy all the luxuries that came with getting your country this far in the World Cup, and then, if England got to the final, fly back and spend time with him. He wasn’t supposed to stay. What would they tell the press?
Jude could feel them all staring at him.
“Give me your phone Jude,” Harry said softly. Jude felt a tear slip out of his eye as he complied. No one was supposed to know about him and Erling. Once one person knew, everyone would know. While their relationship wasn’t against any rules, it was certainly frowned upon.
He continued his mapping of the ceiling to avoid seeing everyones reactions to who would pick up the phone. Luckily for Harry, and unluckily for Jude, it was easy to figure out who his mate was, given that Erling was pinned and had a heart next to his name.
Harry shoved the phone towards his face with Erlings contact open and grunted a questioning noise at him. All Jude could do was nod.
He picked up on the second ring.
“Jude? What’s wrong? Why aren’t you celebrating?” He closed his eyes and tried to will away tears at hearing his alpha's voice. He heard Tuchel swear in the background.
“Hey Haaland, it's Harry Kane. We have a bit of a situation.” Despite the shock at Jude’s mate being from the rival team that they just beat, his voice was steady.
“What? Is Jude okay?”
“He’s going into heat. We–Tuchel and I, that is–were hoping you would be able to come and help him deal with it?” Harry started sounding distinctly uncomfortable.
Muffled sounds of moving came through the grainy phone speaker. “Send me your address. I need maybe 5 minutes to talk to Solbakken and then I’ll be there. Hand me to Jude.”
Harry complied, taking the phone of the speaker and handing to Jude who held it up to his ear.
The rest of the room couldn’t hear what was said, but before long Jude had typed something out and put the phone down. “He’ll be here in 15 minutes.”
Mark came up to him with two pills and a glass of water. “These will dampen your heat, combined with having your mate here will make it significantly more bearable.” He turned to Tuchel. “He should be good to go by Monday morning, but I wouldn’t recommend anything strenuous, just light stretching.”
“He can join us for recovery and dinner and skip the actual practice.” Harry said, voice firm. Tuchel just ran a hand down his face and nodded.
“Of course it’s bloody Haaland. Right well, I’ll see you on Monday, Bellingham. Kane.” Tuchel walked over to Mark and said something inaudible before leaving.
“You’ll come see me on Monday, okay?” Mark said, before retreating back to his desk.
Harry sighed. “To be honest mate, I don’t know why you’re so torn up about this. I’d kill to see Katie right now.”
Jude sniffed. “Just embarrassing. It will be nice to see him again. Can’t believe this is how I told people that my mate is Erling Haaland.”
Harry let it fall silent, and continued to gently scruff Jude while they waited for Haaland.
Soon enough, a blond head peaked into the room.
“Jude?”
Erlings eyes flashed to where Harry was scruffing him, and Jude could smell his scent get bitter. He took his cue and shook Harry off.
“Thanks mate,” he said awkwardly before walking over to Erling. Once the door closed behind him, leaving just Jude and Erling in the hall, Jude let a couple of tears fall.
“Oh baby,” Erling cooed. He pulled the smaller man into an embrace, where they stood for a good minute. “Take me to your room.”
Erling flipped his hood back up and followed Jude up the stairs and down the hall to a room.
“This isn’t my room, stay off to the side. I need the nesting stuff from Ant.” Jude knocked on the door, keeping an eye on Erling, who stood facing the other way, just in case Gordon stepped out.
Luckily for Jude, Ant hadn’t started partying yet, and peaked his head out. He was obviously shirtless and his hair was dripping onto his neck.
“Heya Ant, can I get the nesting stuff from you?” Jude said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Ant raised an eyebrow at his request. “Sure,” he said, disappearing from the door for a second, before passing a basket filled with hoodies and blankets over to him.
“Thanks,” Jude said meaningfully. Ant just cocked his head and nodded, before shutting the door.
Jude grabbed Erling, and dragged him down a different hallway before unlocking his room. He left Erling standing in the doorway, before pulling all the blankets off the bed.
His nesting process wasn’t as long as some omegas, but it definitely wasn’t a short one. On the bed, he untucked the sheets and tucked pillows into them to create a border around the mattress. Into the gaps between pillows, he started tucking the jumpers and blankets the team provided. Finally, he layered the hotel sheets and blankets over the whole thing.
Finally, he turned and dragged Erling over. “Take jumper and shirt off,” he mumbled, tugging at the offending items.
Erling smirked at him, complying and let Jude toss them over onto the bed. Once Jude had stripped he jumped into the nest and waited for Erling to join him.
Once he had laid down, Jude clambered on top of him and let his head bury into Erlings neck.
“I’ve missed you.” he mumbled. “Can’t believe I forgot touching you would set me off. Might’ve been fine if I wasn’t so bloody close to my worst heat.”
Erling laughed at him, the rumbles soothing Jude further. “I’m just glad I got to see you.”
Jude let his scent wash over Erling. He could tell Erling was scenting him, as the Alphas pine and snow scent was permeating the room.
It was like this that Jude finally fell asleep.