I decided to post my Lellinger stories also in English. If you prefer reading them in Polish, you can find that on my profile.

! I changed their sport careers to make the plot work. Stephan and Markus are in the A-team, Andi and Karl in the B-team.

***

Andreas felt pretty lucky. Even though he was only on the B-team, this year he was flying to Spain for the pre-season camp.

Usually, only the A-team got to go abroad to prepare for the next year's competitions. The rest spent weeks in a hardly posh hotel in a German country where nothing ever happened. After the training sessions, your free time activities were limited to reading, movies or cards if your teammates were feeling adventurous. Which wasn't as often as one might think.

Suffice it to say that the Bavarian often had to go as far as bribery in order not to die of boredom. His pride and the sneaked-in chocolate stash had suffered. It was ridiculous how utterly boring his friends were.

That's why he literally jumped from joy upon hearing the news. His head coach was going to miss this year's camp, and as they were supposed to be leaving in two days there was only one option. The B-team was going to be temporarily supervised by Werner Schuster.

It was most likely only a formality and their assistant coach was going to be running everything, but it didn't change the fact that Schuster and his boys were going to Spain. Therefore Andreas Wellinger, an eighteen-year-old ski jumper from Rupholding, was going to finally live a little.

Carelessly throwing his clothes into the suitcase, he was imagining all the afternoon surfing that awaited him and hoping the gossip about the famous parties thrown by the star team was true. After all, there was no way he was wasting another summer playing Schafkopf.

Two months later

Okay, so the late night parties turned out to be a total bogus. The A-team, though more eager to chat or go out after the gym, didn't differ that much from his own teammates.

Still, Andi couldn't care less if they had watched soap operas all day. He didn't plan to spend any more time with them than it took to say hello. No, all his free time was reserved for one person. Stephan Leyhe, a twenty-one-year-old Hessian, who was still waiting for his first big success in the World Cup.

Their first meeting was a total cliché.

The B-team has just arrived and was finishing checking in at the reception when the more accomplished sportsmen showed up. Only half-listening to his roommate Karl, as the two walked to the elevator, Andreas was too busy posting his latest selfie on Instagram to notice the man coming from the opposite direction. Until they bumped into each other and his phone fell out of his hands.

"I'm sorry, I got lost in thought," he heard someone say as he bent down to pick it up.

"It's all fine, I should have watched where I was..." he started to answer before lifting his head to find a pair of brown eyes, belonging to a handsome man, staring straight at him. Only after noticing a growing smirk on the older one's face did he snap out of it with a blush and finished his sentence. "...going."

"Stephan," introduced himself the brunette and extended his hand.

"Andi," responded Andreas, shaking his hand and feeling mortified when his voice came out much higher than normal.

Suddenly, they heard someone yelling: "Stephan! Hurry up or I'm leaving and good luck finding our room."

"I better go, I wouldn't put it past Markus to leave me stranded here. It was nice to meet you. Sorry again for running into you," said Stephan with a grin and started to walk towards his waiting roommate.

Andreas continued to stare stupidly after him until he heard his friend laughing.

"Man, you should have seen yourself. Somebody has a crush!" teased Karl.

"Shut up," spat out the blond grabbing his suitcase and setting off towards the elevator, not waiting for his teammate.

So, it wasn't by any means the smoothest introduction he could imagine. Fortunately, he was soon given the opportunity to make a better impression.

After spending the evening unpacking and listening to Geiger's further mocking, Andreas decided to go to bed early. Having spent the night dreaming about a certain ski jumper with the sweetest smile in the world, he woke up an hour before the alarm. He knew he wasn't going to fall back asleep and decided to get dressed and head to breakfast.

Having grabbed something to eat, he sat down at an empty table. This early the place was almost deserted with the exception of the hotel staff and an older couple in the corner.

A few minutes later, he was startled from his thoughts by the very person he has been daydreaming about.

"Mind if I sit here?" asked someone stopping by his table.

Andreas looked up from his plate and saw the guy from yesterday staring at him with a friendly grin.

"Go ahead," he replied quickly.

Muttering "thanks", Stephan took the place opposite him and began to eat his sandwich.

"So, how are you? Excited to start the season?" asked the older one after a moment of silence.

Andi was a little surprised that the man, who was basically a stranger, decided to join him and wanted to talk. It was far more common for the jumpers from the A and B teams to keep to themselves during the competitions or the rare combined trainings.

On the other hand, the only other option was sitting alone. He silently thanked Karl for annoying him enough to make him go to sleep early yesterday.

"Of course but mainly I'm thrilled to be here. There's really no comparison to our usual location."

"Yeah, I remember it all too well," chuckled the brunette. "Have you just joined your team? I'm sure I would have remembered seeing you during a competition."

Andreas felt his face turn red for the second time since arriving in Spain. He wondered why his body was betraying him all of a sudden. All the blushing and nerves, when he was usually the loudest person in the room making others feel intimidated not the other way around.

"It's my second season on the B-team but last year I got injured before I had the chance to earn a spot in a World Cup competition."

"I'm sorry, that's always tough. I'm sure you'll have better luck this year."

"I hope so. I'm so over the kids' team."

"Come on now, you've got time. How old are you? Seventeen?" asked Stephan laughing.

"Eighteen," mumbled Andi reluctantly. Did he have to look so young? There goes any chance he had with the brunette.

"Sorry, my mistake," said ironically Leyhe, sending him a smile to show that he's joking. "Ok, tell me if Muller is still the physiotherapist..."

When the others started to gather in the room, Andreas looked at his watch and was surprised to see that they have been talking for over an hour. It didn't matter that they had just met or that Stephan was a little older. They hadn't brought up any heavy topics, but Andi felt that he could tell him anything and not be judged or mocked.

In the following eight weeks you could rarely see one without the other. As soon as their respective trainings were over, they would meet up and spend their free time together much to the annoyance of their other friends.

Most often they would stroll along the beach, sharing stories and secrets. They talked some more about Andi's injury and his fear of missing out on a successful career because of the forced break. Stephan admitted to feeling frustrated with his slow progress and insecure about his position on the team during the upcoming World Championships.

Sometimes they didn't say a word and just enjoyed each other's company. When Stephan was in a good mood, he would let his new friend teach him surfing despite being pretty terrible at it.

Today was their last day together. Tomorrow the B-team was going to travel home while the others stayed on for another week.

Andreas had finished a few hours earlier than usual at the gym, their coach giving them some time to pack, and was now waiting for his friend in his room.

He tried not to think about the inevitably approaching moment when they will have to say goodbye. At last he had to admit, at least to himself, what he had denied all this time. He has fallen for Stephan. There was no other way to explain his feelings lately.

He wanted to spend every possible moment with his older friend and missed him like crazy on the rare occasions when they went out with their separate teams. His heart was slowly breaking at the thought that after today they may go back to being strangers, sporadically exchanging hellos when passing each other during the competitions.

Of course, there are phone calls and e-mails. They will probably meet at some point during the winter if his results are good enough to start in the World Cup. But how often do long distance relationships work out?

And it wasn't even a romantic one, just a friendship. As much as he felt like they have known each other for years, the truth was they had met two months ago. Andi felt deep inside that something was ending forever.

Anyhow, his feelings for Stephan were going to stay a secret. He couldn't imagine telling him. He knew that the brunette, despite his kindness and compassion, didn't see in him a potential partner but rather a kid brother.

Shaking off his wistful thoughts, he decided to focus on enjoying the evening and after quickly choosing an outfit went to the bathroom to prepare.

Soon they were sitting in a café, eating ice-cream and laughing after Stephan told him about Markus's another crazy idea. It was almost midnight when they finally got back to the hotel after taking a final walk on the beach.

"I'm gonna miss you," whispered Andreas, hoping that in these simple words his friend will hear everything he wasn't ready to say.

They were standing in front of his room, quietly saying their goodbyes so as not to wake up Karl. The blonde tried hard not to cry, not wanting to look like a child again.

"I'm going to miss you too, Andi," said Stephan and cupped Andi's face in his hands, pulling the younger one closer and kissing him hard.

Andreas returned the kiss and felt a few tears escape his eyes. They stayed locked together for what felt like hours. Finally, Stephan slowly broke the kiss and wiped the tears from his face.

Not saying anything else, the older man took a step back and left with a sad smile.

Andi entered his room, not bothering to try and stop the tears. All he wanted was to hide under the covers and cry, but he quickly put on his pajamas to avoid any questions from Karl in the morning. He spent the next few hours staring at the ceiling, trying not to think about what happened.

He must have fallen asleep sometime during the night because the next thing he heard was his roommate, yelling at him to get up as they were leaving in half an hour. Feeling numb he got dressed, finished packing and before long they were on the bus waiting for everyone to turn up.

Having chosen a seat with a view of the hotel, he spent the minutes before their departure staring at the main entrance but the one person he wanted to see was nowhere to be found.

***

Sequel?