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Isaac
Isaac may not have been there when Colin came out, to hear Ted’s speech, but he was the first to prove to Colin just right Coach was.
Showing up at his flat late at night, Isaac spend hours grilling him. Slowly learning not just about the LGBT+ community, the fittest player in the team, what it means to be gay…but also every secret Colin ever kept from him.
It was awkward at first, Colin finally calming down after a week of panicking over what Isaac thought about him, what he was going to do knowing what was on his phone. But the more they talked, the more the Welshman realized that nothing had changed between them. Issac was still his best mate.
He answered every question the older player had about gay sex, how he realized he was gay. Half of the questions left Colin laughing at the borderline homophobia and stereotypes, at Issac’s serious but wide eyed face as he learned the truth.
Things weren’t perfect, Isaac still had a lot to learn, to make up for after the way he acted the last week…but he was trying. He was still here.
And that was enough to leave Colin’s heart full all night long.
Roy
Waking into the coaches game rewatch the morning after Issac’s blowup, Roy had one thing in his mind.
“What the hell came over Hughes in the second half?”
It’s not that the midfielder was a bad player, but he was on fire after Isaac had been kicked from the game. Of course, Roy had noticed the strange relationship between the normally inseparable pair over the past week. It was hard to miss when Isaac got into a fight with Colin during the game, but Roy couldn’t understand how it all connected.
Until Ted and Beard filled him in, Roy listening carefully and quietly, thinking it over.
Isaac was mad about something…Colin came out to the team…Isaac was taking it out on Colin…
“Fuuuuuuuuck.”
Without a word to the other coaches, Roy left the room, slamming the door behind him, making his way directly to the weight room where the team was training.
“HUGHES!” he screamed as soon as he entered the room, seeing how half the team jumped, none as much as Colin who was on the treadmill, missing a step and nearly eating shit before he jumped off. Jerking his head, Roy left the room, knowing Colin would follow.
Opening the door to the boot room, Roy ushered Colin in, heisting for a moment before slamming it shut behind him.
For a few moments, the two men stared at each other in silence, Roy not sure what to say and Colin having no idea why he was here.
“Isaac’s been giving you trouble recently,” Roy finally growled out, clearly angry.
Colin, surprised at the tone in Roy’s voice, “I, um, didn’t realize everyone noticed.” He honestly hadn’t when no one said anything about the lack of passing, the fact Isaac wouldn’t even look at him with a week.
“Hard not to when a Captain try’s to fight a player on his own team during a match,” Roy grunted, ignoring the pointed look that Colin threw him. “This have anything to do with what you told the team yesterday?”
Colin’s eyes grew wide, finally understanding what Roy was getting at. “Isaac’s not homophonic,” he blurted out, “I, not really at least…it was related, but you don’t have to worry about it. We worked it out last night.”
Roy mearly grunted, clearly calming down some, staring at Colin in silence. The player shifted under the intense stare, but couldn’t help but smile at the coach.
The two had never been very close, but Colin recognize what Roy was doing. Looking out for him, making sure that he wouldn’t face any problems with a member of the team.
Finally, Roy nodded at Colin, turning back toward the door.
“Not a word about this Will!”
Colin heard the sound of boxes being fumbled and falling to the floor, turning around and finally noticing Will. Shooting him a smile, Colin left to get back to training.
Richard and Jan
It was a rare night when the team was actually able to go out to a club again. Drinking too much vanilla vodka, dancing with random girls, splitting off before too long. Nothing unusual.
This was, however, the first time Colin had been out since being out. The first time he didn’t have to pretend to be interested in the girls around him, to pretend to be terrible at flirting to run the girls away.
He was enjoying himself more than usual without the pressure of pretending, staying at the tables with Richard and Jan and chatting.
Colin wasn’t surprised when Richard was quickly distracted by something, or rather someone, on the dance floor. But he nearly spat out his drink as he heard what Richard said.
“That is one attractive man,” the Frenchman was staring at a tall and buff man in the middle of the dance floor. Colin quickly found himself distracted by the way the strangers hips moved, taking a sip of his drink.
“He is very handsome,” Jan Mass said, his eyes clearly locked on the man as well. Colin choked on his drink, holding onto the table as Jan patted him on the back.
“I thought I was the gay one here, fellas,” he finally managed to say.
“I may not be interested in fucking a man,” Jan responded, looking at Colin. “But I can understand why you find us appealing.”
Colin stared at him with an open mouth for a moment before slowly smiling, appreciating his teammates support. After a moment they both turned to look at Richard, whose eyes were still fixed to the man on the dance floor.
After a moment, he finally looked at them with a smirk, “I’m French.”
Keeley
For once, Colin felt pretty sure how a coming out would go. Standing outside Keeley’s office, he knew that she would be supportive of him, considering the girlfriend she had earlier in the season…that didn’t stop the nerves from bubbling in his chest.
It was Trent’s idea. The two of them had become friends since Amsterdam, even closer after Colin came out to the team and didn’t have to come up with an excuse as to why him and Trent were hanging out. And Colin couldn’t deny giving the clubs PR rep a head up about his…situation, to get advice about it from her, was a good idea. Trent always had a lot of those.
Knocking on her office door (even if she wasn’t here as often, Rebecca insisted Keeley had it for when she was in), he walked inside when she called out to him.
“Colin!” she cried out happily as she saw him, standing up from her desk and coming around to give him a hug. “How have you been? It’s been forever since I’ve seen you off of the pitch.” She smiled widely at him as she walked over to the couch, gesturing for him to sit next to her. “What can I do for you today?”
“I’m gay,” he said, cutting right to the chase, heart beating fast as he quickly sat down in heavily after saying it. Once he started talking, it all seemed to come pouring out of him. “I’m not interested in some big coming out, being some kinda spokesperson for everyone. I’m just a lad who plays soccer, I’m fine with that. Being gay doesn’t affect that. And I told the team after a match and it’s not that I don’t trust them to keep it a secret, but Trent mentioned that god forbid something get out. That it may be good to have a PR plan ready. I mean he figured me out months before I told the team, and I just-“
Keeley finally leaned forward, placing one of her hands on his knee, cutting off his breathless rambling. He looked over at her, only to find a soft smile on her face.
“Thank you for telling me Colin,” she says first, squeezing his knee, “I know how hard it can be to come out, and it means a lot to me that you trust me with this part of you.”
His heart was still pounding, but Colin could finally feel it calming down, enough for him to finally send her back a shaky smile.
“Now,” she stood up, making her way back to her desk and opening up her laptop. “The best thing to do is have a plan for all the difference situations, outlining how you want to respond, if at all…”
Colin was finally able to totally relax as Keeley worked her magic, taking care of everything and then some. No matter what, happened, he knew that he had a mighty force in his corner.
Jamie and Zoreaux
Jamie’s and Zoreaux’s locker were on the opposite side of the room as Colin’s. It was early, and considering he still wasn’t allowed coffee because of the diet the nutritionist had him on, Colin was half asleep.
So he didn’t know what caused Jamie to respond with, “that’s kinda gay, lad.”
Colin was more then use to these kinda comments after years of professional football. Not reacting at all as he finished sliding in his shin guards.
But that didn’t stop him from smiling as he heard Zoreaux slap Jamie on the back of the head. Trying to hide it as he ducked down to tie his boots.
As Jamie let out a long and understanding “Ohhhhhh,” Colin couldn’t help but feel some hope for the future of soccer.
If Jamie could understand, maybe others could too.
Sam, Dani, and Bumbercatch (+the rest of the team)
As soon as they came in from training, Colin was reaching for his phone. Michael had been away for the weeks since Colin had come out to the team, and was finally coming home today.
Colin didn’t know that you could miss a person so much until Michael’s first business trip ran long enough that he had to fly right to the next. Different time zones making it hard for them to get a chance to talk to each other…and everything that had happened in the past few weeks just didn’t feel like something to tell him on the phone.
Smiling wide as he saw the string of messages, he sat down to scroll through them. His boyfriend had landed, gottten his luggage, and was already in the cab in the way to Colin’s place. Typing a quick response, he started to get changed.
But it was slow going, Michael responding in seconds. Until he was clearly more focused on responding to Micheal then getting changed.
“What has you so focused on your phone, Colin?” Sam asked, already totally changed, sitting down on the bench next to him.
Without even thinking about it, so happy that he would be seeing Michael soon, Colin responded with, “My boyfriend.”
“Your boyfriend?!” Dani said, loud enough to get the attention of the entire team, the room going a little quiet as all eyes turned to him. “You have a boyfriend, mi amigo? Congratulations! Love is a beautiful thing.”
Colin blushed a little, but couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face as he looked around at his teammates. Isaac smirking at him, already having spent many hours with Colin gushing and missing his boyfriend, giving him the courage to admit it all to the team. “Yeah. Remember my pal Michael that came to Sam’s restaurant opening?”
Some of the team mumbled in agreement, but Sam spoke up again “I’m happy for you, my friend,” Sam smiled sheepishly, “But there were so many people there that night, do you have a picture?”
Colin nodded, quickly going to his pictures and finding one of Michael, curled up with their dog on the couch, showing it to Sam “This is him, he-“
Before Colin could say anything else, Bumbercatch had grabbed his phone out of his hands, sitting in the middle as most of the team rushed to gather around.
For a moment, Colin’s heartrate spiked, but Bumbercatch quickly had him relaxing. “Dammnnnn, man, you’ve got yourself a catch.”
They all started talking over one another, teasing Colin about why a guy like Michael would be with him, commenting how fit he was, asking about how they met, demanding to meet Colin’s boyfriend.
It was overwhelming, feeling like a dream. It was just like every time a fella on the team got a new girl. Not a single one of them hesitating. Rolling his eyes he stood up to try and get his phone back as the team continued to pass it around. Answering their questions with a laughing to “earn” his phone back.
He couldn’t wait for them to meet Michael properly.