Mending Bruises (Cole Palmer)
Masterlist
Word count: 1.0k
Summary: Cole comes home after a match and you help him unwind and tend to his bruises.
Keys jingle outside the door to your flat, and though you're not expecting it, you're not alarmed either. Your boyfriend uses his key on a frequent enough basis that you've grown used to the occasional unannounced intrusion, and after today's match you aren't at all surprised he's decided to pop by.
“In the kitchen love,” you call when the door squeaks open. Cole has pointed out the need for grease more than once, though you continue to insist you like the noisy hinges because they're your way of ensuring he can't sneak up on you. So far you've won that battle, and the door remains noisy.
Cole drops his kit bag on the sofa and immediately comes over to wrap his arms around your waist. The height difference means he has to stoop down a touch to rest his chin on your shoulder but he does so without a second thought. His lips are slightly rough on your cheek, evidence of how thoroughly he exerted himself on the pitch today. “Hi, babe. Hope you don't mind me coming by.”
“Not like I have much choice now, huh?” You reach your free hand up to pat his cheek. Your focus remains on the fried rice sizzling in the pan in front of you. “Nah, I don't mind. Just a little surprised is all, I thought you'd want to head home and sleep.”
“Just wanted to spend a couple hours with my girl,” Cole murmurs into your hair. Despite how long you've been together, butterflies still fill your stomach with his simple statements of affection. You aren't used to them yet, and you hope they never become so mundane that you do not appreciate them.
“Are you gonna let me check out that leg of yours?” You can't help yourself from worrying. The tackle had come out of nowhere in the second half and had left Cole limping slightly for minutes afterwards.
Cole sighs and pulls away. You stare him down, arms crossed over your chest in your best impression of a stern adult. Of which you normally act neither stern, nor an adult, and Cole knows it. “I'm fine.”
“Babe, don't brush it off.”
“I'm not brushing anything off.” Cole's insistence on being fine is immediately discredited by his wince when you lightly tap his shin with your socked foot. “Okay… okay, maybe it's bothering me. But only a little,” he adds hastily, as if that somehow will settle you.
You point to the armchair in the corner of your bedroom, “go. Sit. This is why I wanted you to come over, cause I knew you wouldn't admit you were hurting unless I saw you in person.”
Cole's heavy sigh follows you down the hall as you go to retrieve some ice. From the moment Cole took contact late in today's match, you knew he was hiding his pain. Your boyfriend has a bad habit of trying to martyr himself sometimes. Luckily he has you to ensure that he looks after himself.
A bag of frozen peas will have to do, though you know Cole won't mind anyway. You wrap the bag in a washcloth and bring both back to the bedroom where Cole waits with his leg dutifully propped up on your bed.
“Guess there's some advantages to having a small flat,” you muse, kneeling next to Cole to inspect his leg.
“What's the advantage exactly?” Cole hisses when you roll up his joggers. Clearly even the slight brush of cloth over his black and blue shin is uncomfortable.
“Well for starters, there's less to clean.” You gesture to Cole's stretched out body with your free hand, the other holding the wrapped peas to his bruise. “But more specifically, having a tiny bedroom means you can receive the top notch medical care that you so desperately need.”
Your voice lifts along with the corner of your mouth, the playfulness not lost on him. “I am in incredible pain. Horrible injury that is, I'm not sure I'll ever recover.” Cole grins when you bite your lip to suppress a laugh. “Gonna need me a nurse to look after me for a few weeks, maybe even a few months. You reckon you might be up for the job?”
You adjust your white top and sit up a bit straighter to bat your lashes at Cole. Despite being the oldest trick in the book, Cole seems to be just as distracted now as he was the first time you used it on him. “I think I could help you out. Bruises are quite nasty, they require constant care to ensure they don't spiral into something worse.”
“Oh, is that so? I'm quite lucky I've got you as my nurse then.” Cole finally bursts into laughter when you pretend to straighten your non-existent nurses cap. His laugh is infectious and before you know it you're both doubled over in fits of giggles, so much so that the peas land on the floor. That only makes the pair of you laugh harder, and it only stifles off when Cole yipes when you put the cold peas on his leg once more.
“I'm sorry love- I do promise I'll look after you though. And first thing is first, you need to recover so I'll get a bath drawn with those salts of mine that you love-”
“Oh! The lavender ones? I love those-” You shush your boyfriend by pressing a single finger to his lips. This quiets him instantly, his eyes softening in an apology.
“To answer your question yes, I'll use the lavender ones. But I'll get that going for you and you can have a soak whilst I get the bed all ready for you yeah? And when you're all washed up and your muscles aren't quite as sore, I can be your little jetpack and cuddle you all night.”
Cole hums, only speaking when you pull your hand away from his mouth, “I do love being little spoon.”
“After today's match, I think you deserve a little coddling.”
