Talex Who (Tobin/You)

41

"Damn." Ash says from the seat she just stole from Dani, who was already out warming up. "You got hooked up." Ash continues and I chuckle.

"It's a random package from a sponsor." I say and Ash takes out one of the cleats, pointing to my name on the shoe with my 15 under it.

"Just a random package from Nike?"

"Yeah?" I say, furrowing my brow. "Maybe they're saying I'm a brave soul for stepping into goal for you." I say and Ash chuckles.

"Shut up and put them on. Get rid of the old ones you're wearing."

"They're not old."

"You got them last year."

"And didn't touch them until this season. They aren't old until the top is coming off the bottom."

"Just break them in."

"After practice." I say, slipping my hypervenoms on, taking the new cleat and putting it back in its box, heading out with Ash, who stands with Lloyd as he warms me up.

Half way through practice, I groan as I roll to the side after blocking a shot, sending it out to the side, and get up, heading to my line again as Christina gets her foot behind the ball while Moni tried to clear it, since we were working on defending and striking. Can't really scrimmage, only keeper here. I mean, Alex volunteered, but we've all seen the video of Alex in keeper gloves. She should probably stick to taking keepers out with her legs, not trying to be taken out. Christina strikes the ball and I punch it out of my way.

"Yes, Y/N!" Ash screams from where she stood, by the corner. I watch the girls chase the ball and get back on my line, focusing on the ball, and getting defensive as Alex comes at me with it after she gets it. She strikes it and I put my hands up to catch it as it comes for my face and hang onto it as Alex continues running to me and punt it down the field to relieve the pressure for me and my back line.

After a while, Tom has the team working on striking, so I work on my shit as well.

"Get it, Fish!" Ash yells after I save a beautiful ass strike from Alex, who stomps a little, grinning as I toss her ball back to her, turning to my attention to the next strike, heading it away and getting my foot on the strike Danica sends in and dive to save the strike from Jamia, but that one gets past me because my foot slipped a little as I jumped, so I looked stupid trying to save that.

After Tom releases practice, I go get some water and Lloyd looks at me.

"You staying late again?" He asks and I nod, Ash groans, of course.

"But I'm hungry."

"But I'm inexperienced. Where's Hope when I need her to yell at me?"

"I can call her. She might not show up, but." Ash says and I shrug.

"You do that." I say, following Lloyd back to goal with a bottle, tossing it to the side as I get back in goal.

I call it quits at 3 today, and walk over to Ash, who groans as I take my gloves and training shirt off, since it was black. Great color for Florida.

"Finally. I'm starving." Ash says, following me into the locker room, heading to the training room to let Merritt hook her up to stim while I change into my other training kit so I can get an ice bath.

When I get out of the ice bath, Merritt is just taking Ash off of stim, so I go to the locker room and change out of my wet clothes into the clothes I came to practice in, putting my uniforms in my locker for Chris to collect, putting my training kits and new cleats in my bag as I walk with Ash out of the locker room, keys in my hand as we head to my Jeep.

"What do you want to eat? I'll pay, since I starved you for three hours. Don't want Ali coming after me for starving her girlfriend." I say and Ash tells me where she wants to eat, so I drive there and we go in, sit at a table and eat, taking our sweet time just joking, laughing and having some actual meaningful conversations with each other after about an hour and a half, I pay the check and drive home. Where I get a quick shower and go to Ash when she yells for me from the living room, I'm of course just in my comfortable clothes; shorts and a sports bra, and I see her pointing to the door.

"There's a dude on the porch holding shit for you." Ash says, tossing me her hoddie, I thank her and slip it on before opening the door to see a dude indeed holding shit for me. I greet him with a friendly smile which he returns.

"Y/N Y/L/N?" He asks and I nod.

"That's me." I say, taking the box he hands me and set it on the couch, stifling a laugh when it falls on Ash.

"Ow. Fucker." Ash says and I look at the guy.

"Just sign here." He says, pointing to where I'm supposed to sign, so I do and close the door when he's halfway back to his UPS truck.

"Fishy, your box assaulted me." Ash says as I take the box off of her stomach.

"Take it to court, get a restraining order." I mumble, going into the kitchen to get a knife so I can open the box. "The fuck, Nike, are you trying to butter me up for something?" I ask myself as I sit down, and open the box, since the address was the same address on the box from this morning. When I open the box, it's an actual sponsor package all kinds of good shit is in here.

"Hey, you have new guards." Ash points out and I look up at her.

"Is there something wrong with my PTFC guards?"

"They're old, they're not Orlando. They're old, they're Portland. They're old, and they stink."

"Yeah, and you stink some times too, but do I replace you every time you get smelly? No, I throw your ass in the shower." I say and Ash rolls her eyes, laughing with me. "You're right though, they need to be retired." I say, tossing her a pair of guards, since I was sent four sets.

"What are these for?"

"They go on your shins, Einstein." I say, laughing as Ash chucks the guards back at me. "Just because I was sent four of them." I say, tossing them back to Ash, who nods, grinning.

"Dope."

"No, they don't come with dope, you've gotta buy your own." I say and Ash scoffs.

"You're so funny." Ash deadpans and I smile.

"You love me."

"Yeah, I guess." Ash says as I pull out a couple of sets of keeper gloves. "Ooh."

"Down, you've got a sponsor who sends you gloves." I say and Ash pouts. "Plus you're not Y/L/N, are you?"

"Hey, you were Harris for a while there."

"But now I have my own jersey." I say and Ash pouts. "I don't think they'd fit your hands, Ash. Try them." I say, tossing both sets at her, I was right. They didn't fit.

"Dammit."

In the morning, we fly out to Houston for the game, and Ash flies out separately from the team, she didn't have a ticket bought by the club, since she was hurt, and flew out by herself to watch the game from the crowd tomorrow. When the team gets to our hotel, Alex and I are roomed together, so we race each other to the room after we both call dibs on the same bed. I get to the door first because I took the stairs and I smirk as Alex yells at me from the elevators as I use the key card to open the door and dive onto the bed that we didn't claim.

"Damn you-wait, what?" She asks and I shrug, watching Alex as she tosses her stuff onto the other bed as I yawn.

"Good night."