godspeed | marcus rashford

nine.

gap affection

24/01/21

Nothing necessarily changed during their individual daily schedule. Marcus trained for his games while Kyrie orchestrated football exchanges with players; Marcus played football on the pitch while Kyrie travelled abroad to France and Germany; Marcus listened to Kyrie's words while Kyrie offered him words of advice. They handled their individual football duties with grace, eloquence and structure. They were heavily respected in their assigned and voluntary roles in football and even with their most recent relations (whether one wanted to acknowledge them or not), the young adults planned to maintain their self-assigned images.

Both Kyrie and Marcus shared a few similar aspects; they were busy characters, but they also had a large liking—even some of it unestablished—for each other. And because of this, they manoeuvred around their labour hours to set exclusive time for Kyrie and Marcus.

Time spent together never fell short as the weeks trailed into the next. Yes, working together in the football industry allowed the two to remain close—at Man United's training grounds, meetings with Claire, etc. However, they (more Marcus) wanted their time together to venture outside of labour hours and eventually, that's what came to pass. They were mainstream figures in football, but they remained underground in front of the eyes of the media. This meant that meetings turned to home visits, and professionalism turned into visible comfort.

Similar to their current regrouping.

Upon arriving at the familiar household, Kyrie's lips stretched when she noticed Marcus' tall figure standing by his door. He never failed to recycle his repetitive actions. He always centred his attention to welcome, embrace and entertain Kyrie when it was just the two. Sure, they could talk while at work, but it was always met by interruptions introduced by his teammates.

"Hey, you made it!" Marcus exclaimed as she approached his patio.

After the two exchanged a wholesome hug, Kyrie hummed lightly as Marcus took the duffle bag out of her grasps. She would have held it herself, but she wasn't going to put something so small up for debate only to lose at the end (even if her argument was deemed more valid). "Well, I wasn't going to bail without telling you. And anyway, you sounded a bit too excited for this sleepover of yours."

He glanced at Kyrie with mere confusion as they advanced into his house. "This isn't a sleepover," Marcus said with a slight frown prevalent. "It's an overnight hangout."

She let out a soft laugh as she plopped on his couch. "You just gave me the definition of a sleepover, but okay," Kyrie sighed as she watched Marcus take a seat next to her. She angled her head slightly. "But yeah, you were saying?"

Marcus stretched his arm behind Kyrie's head. "I guess you could say I'm happy because I won my match today against Liverpool with me scoring for one of the goals," he said with subtle confidence, tilting his head up. His confidence didn't stem from cockiness, but more from genuine enthusiasm. To play alongside his teammates at Man United was great, but to win—against Liverpool—and play alongside his teammates simply had him high of euphoria. Man United was a fluctuating club though, in recent days, it was said that this season could be a repeat of their retro glory days.

"Ah, congrats. That's cute," Kyrie smiled as she nudged his shoulder with her fist. She wasn't so in tune with football and all the complex competition within it though she did understand where his enthusiasm stemmed from. Those like November spoke on Man United's name frequently and from what the young assistant has heard, Marcus' team was elevating across all competitions they performed in. Suddenly, Kyrie's face fell as she let out a delayed huff. "But that also explains why Winnie's in a mood right now." Unknowingly, the french player preferred to live up to her name; ironically, Wynter wasn't too pleased when she had to cross paths with a brutal loss.