W.C. - 3.8 k
The long awaited part two of Parents:)
——————
The few days before the season started had always been your favorite, the excited butterflies wreaking havoc in your stomach and the sheer anticipation of getting to play against other teams in the league with the possibility of winning it all, it was just on a whole other level.
The energy around the locker rooms always changed too, everyone sharing the same excited energy about getting to play league football again after a long summer. You had always enjoyed the excitement coursing through your body and you had to wait an entire summer to get it back.
So when you wake up less than a week before the season started with the back of your nose bolting with pain and your throat itching like hell, you cannot believe it. The immense pressure behind your eyes and the pounding headache only makes you feel that much worse.
Your limbs feel heavier than usual as you climb out of bed, the heinous task of putting one foot in front of the other makes your head spin and your vision blackens. In order to not pass out, you took immediate hold of the dresser that stood near your bed, swaying back and forth slightly.
Hot and cold flashes shoot down your arms and legs, and as another stabbing pain shoots through your head you can't keep from letting out a pained hiss.
Your feet drag along the ground as you shuffle towards the kitchen, not ready to start your day what-so-ever. 05.37 flashes bright green as the oven comes into view, loud yawn you let out a sure indication of that.
Opening the cabinet, you reach your hand up and feel around for the crinkling plastic that accompanies the paracetamol, and as the ridged plastic is felt under your fingers you wrap them around the packaging.
Making sure to not make too much sound, as to not wake your parents, you quickly pop a tablet right into your slightly sweaty hand before moving over to the sink and turning on the tap. You fill your mouth with water before popping the pill into your mouth and swallowing quickly, just so that it doesn't start to dissolve in your mouth.
Dragging your feet back to your room, you looked closer to a zombie than you did a 15 year old footballer, the bags under your eyes really encompassing the zombie spirit.
—-
The next time your eyes opened, you somehow felt worse. The pounding headache is only enforced by Lucy's obnoxious shouts of your name, trying to get you to wake up. The loud whining of the door hinges cuts deep into your ears, but the soft footsteps that follow it soothes your ears.
Freezing fingers make contact with your face, stroking softly over your cheekbones as the owner tries a different approach to waking you up. The bed dips beside your covered form, Keira's low voice trying to coax you from the slumber while her hand moves up to scratch at your scalp slightly.
Instead of having a waking effect on you, it slowly lulls you back to sleep, the massage making your brain unscramble and not hurt as much. Your entire body slowly shifts to lay on Keira's instead of the mattress, your head landing on her shoulder as you sling one arm around her in a tight grip.
Soon enough, you're lying fully on top of the older girl who you fully considered a parent, whilst the other one was downstairs wondering what had happened to waking you up.
Keira only looks up from her ministrations when she hears the door open once again, meeting her girlfriends eyes quickly before they move back down to your overheating body. Lucy's steps echo throughout the room when she moves closer to the bed, and as her hand meets your forehead she feels the unusual warmth emitting from the skin there.
She meets Keira's eyes yet again, the younger of the two shaking her head vividly as to signal that you couldn't go to practice under any circumstances. Sighing, Lucy picks up her phone in order to send a quick text to the coach, informing him of their absence.
The bed dips one more time as Lucy settles in beside her kid and girlfriend, bringing her hand up to rub at your back slowly.
"Has she seemed off to you the last few days?" Keira questions quietly, the whisper meeting Lucy's ears softly and she instinctively smiles at the accented voice.
"No, not outside of being excited for the season to start. Oh...I just remembered, she's been more clingy than usual with everyone, not just us." Lucy whispers back before pressing a quick kiss to your warm temple.
Keira's finger trails down as she starts to trace your features, the cold hand a contrast to your hot skin. You break out in a coughing fit soon after, a big ball of mucus escaping your throat before disappearing back down again.
The two women look at each other yet again, communicating through their eyes as you seem somewhat delirious. Picking your head up off Keira's shoulder, the women watch on as your eyes flit around the room before seemingly taking notice of the clock sitting on the nightstand.
Your eyes widen for a second before you're springing up off the bed in a hurry, ignoring the sudden dizziness you start to wrangle with your sleepshirt. You hear laughter coming from the direction of your bed and you slowly lower the shirt back down.
"What are you laughing at? We're super late! Why'd you not wake me?! Oh I'm gonna have to run so many laps." You exclaim loudly through a croaky voice, almost sounding like you have a frog sitting in your sternum.
"Y/n, you're sick. We called out of training, there's nothing to worry about." Lucy explains softly, like you would explain to a toddler that they can't get a toy.
"Wha-what? 'm not sick, where did you get that fro-" Your protest is cut off by yet another coughing fit, contradicting your words as they look at you with a 'really?' look. Tears gather in your eyes when you start to cough again, the exasperation of the action draining you.
Lucy gets up from the bed to sling her arm around your midsection, leading you back to where Keira sat with open arms. As you lay back onto the bed, Keira and Lucy entrap you in a human sandwich, the two laying on either side of you.
And that's how sleep once again overtakes your body, the sounds of quiet snores floating around the room.
—-
"Y/n, wake up. It's time for lunch." Lucy's the one to wake you this time, the woman slapping your cheek softly as a way to wake you up.
All she gets in response is unintelligible mumbling before you sit up abruptly and frankly, throw yourself off the bed and onto the floor. The resulting thud makes Lucy hold back laughter, but she can't hold it in anymore as instead of getting up and walking you army crawl all the way to the door. It's frankly a hilarious sight to be seen, the little grunts you let out as the hardwood floor comes in contact with your elbows and knees.
In reality, it would probably be much easier for Lucy to bring your lunch to you, but she, like usual didn't think that far. She also liked watching you struggle like a fish out of water against the floor.
When she finally decided to take pity on you, you'd already crawled halfway across the room, whispering a firm 'yes sir' every now and then.
Lucy's hands hook under your armpits as she hoists you up to your feet, your dead weight no easy feat to move even for the strong defender. It was like slinging a dead body over her shoulders when Lucy finally managed to get your limp body up, you could barely stand on two feet let alone walk all the way down to the kitchen.
She nearly throws you down into the chair as your dead weight drops, the gravitational pull meaning your body falling down into the seat.
"Oh I'm sorry kiddo, I didn't mean to hurt you." She says softly, taking your face in her hands to inspect your warm and red cheeks, eyes nearly at the point of closing.
"No, 's fine you didn't hurt me, 'm totally fine." The slurred words make Lucy worried, in the short time that you'd lived with her and the redhead you'd only managed to get sick once before, but even then it wasn't as severe as now. Back then it was merely a slight cold that went away with some cough drops, but now it was clear that this wasn't some harmless cold.
Maybe it would be good to take you to the doctors after all, even though her and Keira had agreed on waiting for a little to see if it would get worse. But Lucy was rightly concerned for your well-being, there was no way she'd let you continue without at least seeing a doctor. This feeling was only heightened by the coughing fit you suddenly found yourself in.
"Okay Y/n, you're going to eat your soup and if you don't feel better after that then we'll wait for Keira to come back from the store and then go to the hospital together, that okay with you kiddo?" Her hand is on your shoulder as she looks into your halflidded eyes, speaking slowly and gently so that you're able to understand her in your fever ridden state.
She immediately recognises the shaking of your head as a no, you clearly didn't want to go to the doctors, even if Lucy tried to bribe you.
"No, no doctor, 'm fine." You mumble out incoherently, waving your hands around pretty obviously trying to deter the defender, to make her change her mind.
"Listen bubs, you're clearly not fine and it's worrying me and Kei a lot. We don't have to go to the doctors office per se, if you want we can go see the physios at the training grounds, do you want that?" Lucy sees your hesitant nod at her proposal, still not wanting to go see anyone other than her and Keira, but the physios always let you have a piece of candy every time you come by.
"You actually got her to agree to go to the doctors?!" You hear the very distinct voice of your other mom, of course the two women knew that you saw them as some pseudo parents, but they didn't know how you longed to call them mom, because that's what they were in your mind. They were your moms and nothing would ever change that.
"Yeah, I think bubba's too tired to really know what she agreed to." Lucy responds lowly, not wanting you to decipher what it was she told the midfielder. You'd probably make quite the scene if you had heard it.
Over the next 30 minutes the Walsh-Bronze household, the two women manage to feed you the now lukewarm soup, even with your struggling against them like a toddler, get you out of your pjs and into a pair of Keira's oversized shorts and one of Lucy's too small for you hoodies.
After that they carry you by your arms and ankles out to the car, a rather funny sight, and lays you over the three back seats in Lucy's car. It's definitely unorthodox and a bit dangerous, as Keira herself noted, and so you were moved into a sitting position and helped with bucking up.
Keira decided that it's best for someone to sit with you in the back, to hold your slumped form up with their forearm in order for you not to hurt yourself even more. Ultimately, it's decided that she's sitting in the back with Lucy driving the familiar route to the training grounds.
It's barely midday by the time you arrive, so most of the girls were still in training. That was lucky enough for you, too tired and depleted to walk and too stubborn to be carried like a baby in front of your team.
"Bubba? If you just let me unbuckle you quickly then we'll find out what's wrong with you sooner, okay?" With Keira still supporting your upper body, Lucy unbuckles you and slips your limp arms around her neck. She then carefully pulls your lanky frame out of the car, your long legs wrapping loosely around her hips.
One of the shorter woman's hands goes underneath your thighs to prop your relatively lifeless body up and the other goes around your back to keep you from flopping back and falling to the ground. It's only when your head is secured in the space between her neck and shoulder that she starts walking towards the large building, Keira already having locked the car.
But you don't get far until you encounter one of your teammates, legs still dangling loosely by Lucy's hips.
"Y/n/n? Why are you being carried?" Asisat asked you, having gone on a bathroom break only to meet you, Lucy and Keira in the hallway.
In response to the forward you let out a few incoherent babbles, brain not being able to catch up with your mouth. It's only when the Nigerian looks to your parents that she gets to understand the situation.
"Bubba's pretty sick, she doesn't have the strength or energy to walk right now so that's why she's being carried." Lucy just escapes being cut off by a loud coughing fit coming from the young football player in her arms, the older woman rubbing her hand up and down your back so as to sooth you.
"Ahhh okay, I assume you're meeting with the physios? Just know that both Jana and Alexia are there right now, but I don't think they'd be bothered by the bébé. Get well soon young Anakin." Ever since you had watched Star Wars with Asisat, she'd been calling you 'young Anakin', though she always joked about you not being allowed to join the dark side. Not that you'd ever want to join Real Madrid anyway.
"'Kay Obi-wan." With one last stroke of your cheek, the forward departed and let you continue on your merry way to the physios room.
After a while Lucy has to retake her grip on you to make sure that you wouldn't slide down her body, and that's when you encounter two more teammates.
"Aye díos mio, what's happened with the bébé?" It's Aitana and Frido come up to you this time, the two nearly attached at the hip.
"She's really sick, we're meeting with the physios to see if they'll be able to figure it out." Keira answers this time, her voice less loud than the Spanish girl's, indicating that it is the tone that they're supposed to use.
"Men lilla stackare då, I'll swing by later with some soup and crackers." The swede says determined, clearly her motherly instincts shining through for her young teammate. "Krya på dig lillen." With that, both of them disappear down the hallway, discussing plans on what they should bring over to the Walsh-Bronze household later that evening.
The three football players make their way to the room where the physios were, the silhouettes of multiple people showing through the artificially blurred glass. There was a need for privacy but like any other establishment, the Barcelona training grounds needed to look modernised.
Incoherent words are heard from inside the room, the door not blocking out the usual noise. There was always someone talking at the training grounds, Pina and Patri talking and making up schemes for their next pranks, Ingrid and Mapi hiding away in some closet you'd found them in more than once, Aitana and Frido speaking aimlessly about their weekends.
There was always conversation.
And in some way you relished in that fact, that the team all knew that they had someone to talk to. It wasn't easy in the beginning despite Keira and Lucy involving you in everything they did. Luckily, you found your place pretty quickly.
You can hear the way the conversation in the room gets cut off as soon as Keira opens the door, Lucy entering right after the younger woman. When the captain sees the state you're in, she can't keep from gasping.
A sickly kind of pale, inner part of your lips covered in a thin layer of deep red, skin damp with a thin coat of sweat. Your arms were still loosely wrapped around Lucy's shoulders, only letting go when she places you on the bed closest to the door.
When the weight of your head disappears from her shoulder, she finally notices the wet patch on her shirt, 'poor bubs' she thinks absentmindedly.
The physios swarm you almost immediately, asking Keira all types of questions, how high of a fever you had, if you'd eaten anything yet, and so many other things. It was like you'd finally spaced out fully with all the different voices stamping at your eardrums.
You focus on trying to breathe properly, the whistling sound annoying you to no end. The next coughing fit arrives abruptly, turning your body to the side as brutal coughs wrack your body, making it shake viciously with every cough.
When you fall back to your original position, there's a big ball of dark green, yellowish mucus laying beside your head. There's immediate concern for the physios as they notice the slight red tint the mucus has.
"How long has she been coughing like this?" One of them asks, looking directly into Keira's wide eyes.
"Since last night, but I think it's been going on for longer." She responds unsure, Lucy's hand coming up to rest against her back,reminding the younger girl that she was there.
"Can you help us get her into a sitting position? Alexia, you help too." The captain holds onto your hand, clutching it in slight fear as your body barely responds to her touch. Lucy slides in behind you, letting your body rest against hers fully.
The cold metal of the stethoscope makes contact with your overheated skin and it makes you whine, virtually the first reaction you'd given them since entering the room.
The physios face knits together uncomfortably at the noise emitted from your lungs, he becomes even more concerned when another coughing fit takes hold of your body. He motions for Lucy to push you forward slightly so he can listen to your lungs from your back. He shakes his head worriedly at the results, but he ultimately lets Lucy pull you back into her body.
He gestures for Keira to follow him out of the room, their footsteps heavy on the ground. She nearly drags her feet against the ground, knowing purely by the expression on the physios face that it probably was not good.
"It's more than likely that she's got a chest infection, a pretty severe one as she's coughing blood, but we need a scan to be 100 percent sure. But as long as you and Lucy keep observing her and making sure that she's doing relatively fine, everything should be okay in a few weeks' time. Someone does need to be with her though." He explains carefully, looking to see her reactions, but she doesn't let him know what she's really thinking, only nodding along to his words.
When the two enter the room again, it's like chickens have replaced all the grown women in the room, clearly reacting to the small amount of blood covering your chin. Keira barely manages to get a word out before Lucy shouts out a rushed sentence.
"KEIRA SHE'S COUGHING BLOOD." Lucy is visibly panicking, her knees shaking against the bed, looking helplessly at her girlfriend who seemed calm as a cucumber even after her revelation. "WHY ARE YOU NOT FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW KEIRA? OUR CHILD IS COUGHING BLOOD."
A lazy smile covers your face, not being able to do much more due to your energy being fully depleted, at the older woman calling you her kid.
"Luce, she's got a chest infection, it's normal for her to be coughing blood. Now she needs rest so it's time to get home." Alexia springs to her feet to help you get up, even though her knee is busted. You always admired how he cared for others.
Lucy gives you a piggyback ride back to the car, claiming it to be better for her back. In reality you knew it was so that she could hear your breathing better, but you didn't mention it. It's sweet, the way they care for you.
You can feel eyes on you the entire way back to the house, Lucy checking on you through the rearview mirror every time the car stops moving, Keira checking up on you every so often and pretending she wasn't when you catch her.
Lucy's arms must be tired after carrying you around all day, but she seemingly doesn't care in the slightest as she puts you down carefully on the comfortable sofa. She plops down next to your prone body, her arm resting over her head as she grabs the remote to turn the tv on, knowing that the low hum of voices lulls you to sleep more often than not.
She hears how Keira moves around the kitchen, pots and pans clanging together in a destructive tune, and you nuzzle your head in under her arm, Lucy's hand coming up to run through your hair. The day finally catches up to you as you fall asleep, tucked closely into the defender's side.
It feels like mere moments between when you fall asleep and when you wake up, but in that surprising amount of time a lot has happened. It's dark out, but the voices of your teammates can be heard throughout the whole house, and you open your eyes to the sight of Pina staring right at you, her face not too far from your own.
Lucy feels the way you jump when you notice the forward and she pushes Pina's face away from you, but as soon as that happens she's replaced by Frido, the swede shoving a spoonful of soup into your mouth.
"Sådär ja, nu kommer du att bli bättre på nolltid." The swede smiles at you sweetly, her eyes scrunching up. There are so many people at the house, all doing something different, but everything combines perfectly into the mix that you know as Barcelona Femení.
And even though you're annoyed by night four of Keira and Lucy sleeping in your room every night, you wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. They were your moms after all.