late january 2023
before their fixture against aston villa in the continental cup, the arsenal team are introduced to sabrina d'angelo, their new goalkeeper. manu was currently the only first team keeper and jonas thought bringing in another goalkeeper would be good for their team. it would be their last action in the january transfer window.
against aston villa, the team plays well. elena gets more minutes with victoria, and the pair proved quite the duo as elena constantly fed the dutch long direct balls on the right side. elena assists on frida's goal in the first half.
she also played a bit of left back as kühl subbed on for katie, shifting elena to be a fullback. it wasn't her favorite position, but the villa side was battered and bruised, leaving elena to get some good defensive reps in.
they win the game comfortably, with frida scoring a brace and caitlin finishing the scoring, ultimately setting them up for their next fixture in the conti cup, manchester city.
but before that, they had an fa cup fixture against leeds united.
in between their aston villa game and their fa cup game, the team goes out for a night. it's sort of a way to initiate the new signings, but also to just spend time together as an entire team; they had very little time to do so in the past, so leah and kim organized something for the team.
they were in the midst of their season, so everyone took it light with the alcohol, even if it was just a little bit. elena however, steered away per usual.
she sat behind the darts, watching leah and lia go at it, sipping on her club soda as the two traded jabs.
she cheered every time leah did well, and laughed lightheartedly whenever lia missed what she was going for. leah blew her a kiss every round she beat lia, and it was safe to say everyone was enjoying the night out.
"hey," a voice strolled up to her. elena turned to her left, seeing kathrine walk over from the pool table.
"hi, what's up?" elena averted her eyes from the darts.
"uh," the girl mumbled nervously. "i lose a lot to victoria and katie in pool, so i am taking a break," she chuckled softly. "help me get more drinks for them?"
"sure," elena grinned softly as she followed the girl towards the bar.
"what can i get you ladies?" the bartender strolled up to them as elena and kathrine took a seat at the bar.
"just 3 beers," kathrine answered quickly. "anything for you lena?"
elena hesitated with her response, the nickname had caught her off guard.
"no drinks for me, thank you though," she smiled softly.
"and a two sodas," kathrine said slowly, the smile never fading from her face.
"thanks," elena said as the bartender walked away.
"i owe you, remember? you showed me around my first day?"
that could hardly be classified as showing around, elena thought. she was having a breakdown and kathrine happened to be lost as elena was rushing to get inside the locker room. if anything, elena was the one who owed her.
despite the urge to contradict her, elena nodded along silently.
"i actually want to ask you something, if it is okay?"
elena nodded again, easily. far too easily.
"did something happen between you and gio?" she asked quietly.
elena wanted to dismiss her, shake her head no. tell the danish girl that everything was fine between them.
instead, she replied even quieter, "why do you want to know?"
kathrine shrugged. "you seem like you want to tell someone. ever since you ran into me it looks like something is eating away at you," she said slowly, the english saying not too familiar to her.
elena had already told leah the gist of the story, but kathrine was somehow right. seeing, even just hearing gio's name brought back even worse memories for the teenager that she didn't want to relive at all. it was true, the memories were eating her insides up, her stomach churned every time she even thought about gio.
their relationship had ended so abruptly, in such a fashion that left elena reeling even to this day.
gio had move on quickly, that much elena knew, but the spaniard hadn't been so fast to overcome her struggles.
"i thought i loved her," elena said simply, "but we were too different of people. do you know how people say that loving someone different is good for you?"
kathrine shook her head.
elena chuckled softy. "well people say meeting new people is good, loving them is good too. but gio and i were not in the same mindset in terms of our relationship. we were too different."
"i thought you two are the same age?"
"we are but... she wanted to be public with the relationship, i didn't."
kathrine's features softened. she looked at elena with such conviction that elena forced herself to turn away.
"um, and she wanted to tell my sister about us. i wasn't ready to, and yeah..." elena trailed off. "we fought a lot in the weeks leading up to our separation. she was ready to scream off of a rooftop about her feelings for me, and i wasn't ready."
elena felt like she was repeating herself over and over. she couldn't help thinking about what she would differently.
in truth, as elena thought more and more about it, she realized she wouldn't change anything. she was never going to accelerate her timeline just so gio could tell everyone about their relationship.
"she did not wait for you? you were not ready right?" kathrine asked furrowing her eyebrows.
"yeah, she didn't wait for me..." elena echoed softly.
"here are your drinks ladies," the bartender said sliding a tray over. elena snapped up, thanking him softly before grabbing the drinks. she didn't dare to look at kathrine, instead placing the tray at their island, watching as katie, noelle, and victoria happily took the beers.
elena finally looked up to see kathrine staring at her. she looked like she wanted to say something more, but instead, she grabbed one of the sodas.
"she feels bad, i think. you should talk to her, i think it will help you find closure."
"yeah, maybe," elena genuinely took the advice this time around. maybe she would talk to gio.
"i am going back to play with them now. root for me lena?"
just as she did before, elena easily nodded, but also this time around, she did so more happily, more convincingly.
"of course," elena replied softly.
kathrine grinned at her as she returned to playing with katie and victoria.
their fa cup fixture runs smoothly. they batter leeds 9-0, a thumping victory which they severely needed. elena starts beside kathrine and victoria in midfield. she assists on both of their goals later in the game, kathrine's in the 13th minute, and victoria's in the 83rd. elena and victoria showed once again their prowess in the midfield, it was running as if kim and lia were the ones in midfield.
they find out in the coming weeks that they've drawn chelsea in the next round of the fa cup, but most of the girls aren't all too concerned.
elena for one has a lot of things running through her mind. for one, why were they tying west ham?
elena and victoria spend much of the game on the bench, talking to each other quietly as they watch the game unfold.
they're mostly critiques if the girls are being honest, but elena couldn't help but think about how herself and victoria would have demolished the west ham defense down the flanks.
elena gets played as a full back for the last twenty or so minutes of the game, subbing on with katie and victoria. the trio do wonders working down the flanks, with frida and elena connecting nicely. they just lacked that final touch.
the wsl title was slipping from their fingertips every game that passed.
elena hated that feeling.
however, she was getting along with victoria very quickly. the two were inseparable, she started sitting across the aisle from elena and frida, she'd always take the seat next to elena during film sessions, and they would almost always pair up with one another during partner drills.
elena had to admit, victoria was easy to be around. she was friendly, nice, had a sense of humor that elena herself loved, even if it was a bit dry.
the dutch spent a lot of time in the common area in the apartment calling her sister, and elena respected her privacy. in fact, it reminded elena herself that she had to call her sister more.
one day, elena stalks out of her room to get a snack before dinner when she sees victoria messing with a vase and a bouquet of flowers.
"oh, who got you those daises?" elena opened the refrigerator. leah had come in earlier in the week and the pair had gone grocery shopping. luckily, elena was the only big snack person, victoria didn't rummage nearly as much as elena did.
"ke got them for us! she said it was a house warming gift!"
"oh," elena closed the refrigerator after finding some leftovers they had the night before. she turned her attention to the daises, which victoria had finally put into the vase.
"yeah, you just missed her as well, she said that she hopes you're feeling better too about the other night. what'd she mean about that anyways?" victoria questioned curiously.
elena paused; the pair awkwardly held eye contact.
"she didn't hurt you, did she?" victoria whispered, sounding unsure of even her own words.
"what! no! of course not, you'd know if someone hurt me, trust me. how could she hurt me anyways? she's so scrawny!" elena defended herself hastily.
"that's not-" victoria shook her head. "i just want you to know that i'm here if you want to talk."
elena sighed, "yeah, i know vic. thank you."
"i'm gonna call fleur before dinner, shout if you need anything okay?"
elena simply nodded her head, retreating back into her room.
elena knew that lia would always look out for her. living with the swiss woman for a good four months told elena that lia was trustworthy. now that lia wasn't always with her, elena felt reassured.
victoria would look after her, and she'd do the same for victoria.
because that's what friends would do for each other.
-
i am actually at a loss for words. 100k reads is something so unbelievably insane that it'll probably take me a few more days to process it. the fact that this story has been so popular and the support that you all have given so far is utterly amazing. i can't thank you guys enough for it.
i wanted to publish something to show my gratitude and in my opinion it's not too bad haha, just elena making more bonds. nothing too sad in this chapter despite its title.
once again, thank you for all the support and i hope you enjoyed this chapter. don't forget to leave a vote and a comment!
qotd: some of you have already noticed the future books that i have published a little teaser for on my profile. i want to ask, who do you think will be the oc in each story? they're also centered around a specific team so i'm curious to see what teams you guys think they're going to be about! guess away!