Tobin
-
Back in Portland, after Y/N and I had gotten home, Sortzen tackled her to the ground and greeted her, while I went and put our bags in the laundry room, like every time we get home from being away from him, and when I come back to where Y/N and Sortzen are, Sortzen jumps on me, but I catch him and pet him, smiling as he greets me just as enthusiastically. After a minute, I set him down and follow Y/N up to the bedroom and wrap her in my arms, holding her close for the first time since the day she left to California and smile as she melts into my embrace, kissing her cheek.
"I love you." She says into my shoulder and I kiss her head as I sit on the bed, pulling her to sit on my lap.
"I love you too." I say and smile as Y/N kisses me softly. "Are you okay now, though?" I ask and she nods.
"Yeah, my mom is moving back to LA to be with him as he recovers and most likely staying after to be with him. They miss each other." She says and I nod.
"I understand that one." I say and Y/N giggles. "At least your mom is on the same continent though, having an international long distance relationship is the worst." I say and Y/N smiles, kissing me again, smiling against my lips as she pulls away from the kiss.
"Shut up." She says and I laugh a little, resting my hands on her hips. She gives me a tender smile and I return the expression, following Y/N as she moves off of my lap to stretch out on the bed, so I lay in front of her and pull her close. "I missed you." Y/N says and I furrow my brow. "When I was in LA with my family? I missed you. I don't know which was worse, the fear of losing my dad, or missing you." She says, tracing tiny patterns on my chest, so I grab her chin and look into those green eyes of hers.
"I think you missed your dad more." I say and she nods.
"You're right. I was so scared of losing him. I completely shut down." She says and I sigh, pulling her close, letting her hide in my neck as I rub her back with the hand that isn't holding my head up. "All I did while I was gone was surf, dance, train, eat, shower, sleep, repeat. I think I visited the hospital twice after that first week. I couldn't stand to see such a strong figure in my life in a place known for vulnerablility." She says and I nod.
"I know baby, he's okay now though. Right?" I ask and she nods.
"He's still in the hospital, but he's fine. He's recovering." She says and I sigh, laying down, pulling her onto my chest, and smiling as she buries her face even further into my neck.
"Go on and let it out, baby." I say and she shakes her head."
"I'm fine. I cried harder than I did the night after that Sweden game in 2016." She says and I nod, kissing her temple, just laying with her until she falls asleep, when Sortzen finally joins us, he wiggles between us and I take that as a chance to go start the laundry, since it's only noon. Instead of eleven at night like it is when we usually get home.
The next morning, Y/N and I get out of bed and grab our Thorns kit bags on our way out to Y/N's Range Rover, which she drives us to practice in and when we get to the stadium, we head inside and get ready for practice with the rest of the team, and go through it before heading back home together to relax until tomorrow, we aren't packing back up just yet, because we've got a week and a half before the next bootcamp in Athens, Georgia.
"I still can't believe UGA is hosting our camp this time around." Y/N says and I smile.
"Excited to go back?"
"Not really. But why the fuck not, right? Show some of the girls that don't believe in themselves that they can make it."
"You didn't believe in yourself?"
"I didn't exactly play on all the youth teams like you and the rest of the team did. I played a half of a U-13 game, and was kicked off the team. I got lucky with Jill giving me a chance."
"Why were you kicked off?"
"Too aggressive." Y/N says and I chuckle a little.
"There's no way. You? Too aggressive?"
"Too aggressive for a 10 year old."
"Who was the ten year old?"
"The girl that got me red carded." Y/N says and I raise a brow at her.
"How old were you?"
"13."
"Babe!"
"She got in my way and the U-16 coach was looking to pull me up."
"When you were U-13, I was U-16. You were the girl coach was looking at?"
"Yup. But scrappy lil' me wanted to fight me a German bitch. It didn't work,"
"Don't tell me you fought her."
"No. I was thrown out of the game." She says and I chuckle a little, wrapping my arms around her as we lay on the couch together.
"You're insane." I say and she shrugs.
"But you love me anyway." She says and I nod, kissing her head.
"That I do." I say and she smiles over her shoulder at me.
"I wanna play a game with you." She says and I raise an eyebrow at her. "A video game."
"Okay, tell me." I say and she grins.
"FIFA." She says and I nod.
"Which one? You have 16, 17, 18 and have already preordered 19."
"Well, obviously not 19. But maybe 18, we're in it."
"We're in 16 and 17, too."
"But our league teams are in it. Not just the men. Come on, babe. Breakers against Portland." She says and I smirk because Breakers.
"Fine. You Boston?" I ask and she nods.
"Pro setting, six minute game,"
"What do I get when I win?" I ask and she scoffs.
"You're funny. When I win, I get to do as I please with your Twitter and you have to leave it there until the end of the month."
"I'm fine with that, that'll be my birthday present to myself, removing what you've done to my Twitter." I say and she nods. "If I win, I get to do the same to you."
"You've got a deal, heath."
"What if we tie?"
"Portland and Orlando." She says and I nod.
-
I groan as Y/N breaks past the back line again and scores on me for the third time, so we skip the replays and everything before I kick off again, to Sinclair, as I shift up and send myself a through ball, but groan as Y/N intercepts the pass to her virtual self and try my damndest to get the ball, before sending it up the field when I do recover possession.
After the game we tied on, we played again, this time, Y/N picks Orlando and she kicks my ass on that one.
"Ha!" She says, turning to me and I roll my eyes at her as I hand her my phone after unlocking it. She smiles at me and kisses me softly before getting up and scampering off, so I turn off the TV and her Xbox One before following her out to the back to see her doing something on my phone. After a while, she gives my phone back and sits on my lap, just relaxing.
-
Y/N
-
I sigh as Tobin and I land in New Jersey for our League game against SBFC, and run my hand through my hair as I slip my shades back on, my headphones still on and playing my music, Chunky by Bruno Mars currently playing as Tobin and I both walk toward luggage claim to wait for our bags, since we decided to take our kit bags on the plane, so if a bag gets lost, it's not our kits. Of course, I wasn't paying attention, so Tobin hands me my bag and I thank her, following her out to where Kelley agreed to pick us up. Why get an uber when you've got a teammate to take you to the hotel? 'Cause it's not like Kelley lives here. Strange child, that one, living across the country from her FC.
"Squirrel!" I call out when I see Kelley and jog toward her, hugging my teammate as Tobin grumbles behind me.
"You never get that excited when you see me anymore." She says, coming over and hugging Kelley as I step away from my teammate and roll my eyes at my girlfriend.
"Maybe because we share a house." I say and Tobin smiles.
"Oh yeah." She says and I roll my eyes at her.
"You guys are so disgustingly cute. Come on. Let's get you to the hotel." She says and leads us to her car, and drives to our hotel and we thank her before getting out and getting our things and she drives off as we go into our hotel and check in, because Tobin and I have practice like a half hour ago, and since our flight was delayed, we're late, so that's not good, so we've got to rush to practice and get going. I'm not about to give up my starting spot. Fuck that shit.
When we get to the field, coach looks over at us and sighs.
"Our flight was delayed." I say and he motions for us to join the team.
-
"You guys were 45 minutes late." Mark says to Tobin and I and we nod.
"We know, we'll stay 45 minutes after and make that lost time up." Tobin says and I nod.
"You know we don't slack like that, Mark." I say and he nods.
"Alright." He says and we nod, walking over to the team where they were taking a break.
After practice, I groan as I fall on the bed and smile as Tobin sits next to me and plays with my hair, my sweaty ass hair.
"You did great today." She says and I roll my eyes.
"I think my lungs have shriveled up and disappeared." I say and Tobin smiles, kissing my head.
"Go get a shower, you always feel better after a shower." She says and I nod, getting up and doing what I was told.
-
The next day, for the game against SBFC, we all get dressed, and as I'm standing in front of my locker in just my socks, jersey and my black spandex, I sigh.
"Tobs," I say and Tobin turns to me.
"You're missing something." She says, pointing to my spandex and I roll my eyes.
"Have you seen my shorts? Or are you just going to stand there and laugh at me as I look for them?" I ask and Tobin chuckles at me.
"Uh, ask Kling, she was over here while you were in the training room." Tobin says and I nod, calling out to Kling.
"Nope." She says, before heading to the bathroom, so I go check her locker to find them sitting on her chair, so I grab them and put them on before putting on my warmup jacket before grabbing my cleats out of my bag and slip them on as Tobin hands me my shin pads.
"Dropped them in the room while we were leaving." She says and I smile.
"What would I do without you?" I ask and she shrugs.
"Probably get benched for not having your shin pads." She says and I sigh, putting them on and putting the tape around my sock so they don't slide. Yeah, it's pretty high school of me, but I don't care, whatever works, works, and I don't want a broken shin, so my bad. I'd rather play a full season and not have to worry about release dates for the following season, than look 'professional' and end up with a broken shin. When we're all dressed, we head out to warm up.
After warming up, we head back into the locker room and listen to Mark as he speaks about the plan for the first half while we all drink water. Out on the field between Allie and Tobin, we shake hands with Sky Blue's starters as they pass us, on their way to their positions, before shaking hands with the refs and heading to our half to start the game. In the 35th minute, I level a ball from Kelley, and pass it to Tobin, who isn't surrounded by five Sky Blue players and watch her take it up the field, sending a ball to Christine over head and smile when the ball hits the back of the net.
After the game, we all file into the locker room celebrating our win of 5-4 and change at the same time that we celebrate, well, everyone else celebrates, but I'm focused on getting changed and home so Tobin and I can fly right back out, to Athens for boot camp. Which will take place while Tobin's birthday comes around, in three days. When we get back to the hotel, Tobin and I pack up and head out earlier than the rest of the team, since we've gotta go, fly to Porland, get our boot camp bags that have already been packed, our USWNT kit bags and go right back to the airport for another flight to Athens. When we get to the airport, we go through security and head to our gate and wait for the plane, when we board, Tobin is across the aisle from me and I'm next to the window with two little girls next to me, obviously they're not alone, this lady asked me if they'd be okay next to me, they could be no more than thirteen, and it didn't look like they liked soccer, so I wouldn't have to answer questions about living with Tobin, playing with Alex, or what it's like to be me. Or so I thought.
"Oh my god, are you Y/N Y/L/N?" The one sat right next to me asks and I look at Tobin briefly before nodding.
"Yes, I am."
"You are so cool. Can I have your autograph?" She asks and I sigh.
"I don't have a pen."
"That's cool, we can just take a picture and you can sign it with the markup tool." She says and I shrug, because that's exactly what I was thinking, so I take the phone she hands me and take the picture of the both of us before signing it with the mark up tool. "Thank you so much." She says and I nod, the two girls are quiet for the rest of the time that we're getting ready for take off, so once we're in the air, I turn on my music and let myself fall asleep, only waking up when I'm being shaken, so I open my eyes to see Tobin next to me.
"Come on. We landed." She says and I nod, getting up and following her off of the plane and to our next gate, we wait for that plane and board when we can and get settled into our seats net to each other for our flight to Portland. "So I was thinking on the last flight." Tobin says and I snort a little.
"I bet that hurt." I say and she just stares at me. "Sorry, continue." I say and she sighs.
"One of us should stay in the airport, behind security, and the other will leave, go home and leave these bags at home and bring the rest of the bags back, it'll save time."
"Yeah, but you know how suspicious it'd be for someone to bring in four bags? Asking for tickets of two people and only one person is present?" I say and Tobin sighs.
"Do you want me to do it? If I need you at check in and for TSA, I'll call you." She says and I shrug.
"Why not. I'll enjoy getting to say I told you so as we walk away from the check in desk." I say and Tobin scoffs a little.
"So cocky."
"Well, I don't have one, so I've gotta be one."
"Shut up." Tobin says, laughing, and I smile at her, getting ready for take off and relax as we get into the air, watching the clouds out the window as we fly, until I doze off again, still listening to my music.
When I wake up, we're just landing at PDX, so I sit up and look over to Tobin so see her staring at her hand that's hovering right over my shoulder, so I pull out an earbud and raise an eyebrow at her.
"I was just about to shake you awake." She says and I chuckle.
"Well, beat you to it." I say and she smiles.
When we land, we get off the plane and I wait for Tobin to try her plan, handing her the keys to my Ford. After twenty minutes, I get a call from Tobin.
"How right was I?"
"Just meet me out front by check in." She says and I chuckle, hanging up the phone and go meet her by check in, taking my bags and walking with her to the desk, where we get our tickets and go through security again before heading to our gate, where the passengers are already boarding the plane, so we get in line and get on the plane, settling in for another flight to Boise, where we'll fly to Denver, before flying to Atlanta and then drive to Athens, since it's only an hour's drive from Atlanta.When we land in Denver, I groan as I lean on Tobin's shoulder while my entire right leg cramps up and smile as she helps me limp to our next gate. "You alright?" She asks and I nod.
"Just a cramp. Only bad part about flying for me. Too much at once is lethal."
"Not really, but I get what you mean." She says as we find our gate and decide to grab some Panda Express while we wait for our flight. "I can't believe you convinced me to eat this, instead of what I wanted." Tobin whines and I roll my eyes.
"You wanted to eat at some kind of wine bar. Remember what happened almost a month ago?"
"I'm sorry babe. I didn't know you were that sensitive to drinking now."
"I've been drunk once in my life, that one time in Manchester, and if that hangover wasn't a good enough deterrent for me, my dad almost getting killed because of alcohol is."
"So I can't drink either?"
"I just don't want you getting in trouble, or killing yourself or someone else. Plus Dawn would kill you if you drank on the way to camp. She'd kill me too for letting you." I say and Tobin sighs.
"I wasn't going to drink anything alcoholic." She says and I shrug.
"I won Rock, Paper, Scissors. Fair and square. Deal with it." I say and Tobin laughs.
"I love how we settled a food dilemma with such childish means." Tobin says and I shrug.
"It was your idea." I say, shrugging as I finish my food.
-
When we land in Atlanta, Tobin tells me to get us an uber while we wait for our bags to come around on the conveyor belt, so I do, and when Tobin hands me my bag, i follow her out of the airport and wait for our driver, when we get our driver, she drives us to Athens and to the hotel, and I pay her, thanking her for the ride, before following Tobin into the hotel, where she's already checking into the room that's on the same floor as the rooms Jill booked for us, and next to Ashlyn and Alex's room, according to Jill when we called her while we were booking our hotel room because we'd show up a day before the rest, team and staff alike.
"So what do you want to do?" Tobin asks, looking out the window at the city I spent four years of my life in.
"Sleep." I say and Tobin chuckles.
"No, how about you show me around the UGA campus, I wanna see where fetus Y/N spent her days."
"Oops, we're in the wrong state, can we go to sleep now."
"Okay, fine, College Y/N." Tobin says and I groan, getting off the bed I had already become acquainted with.
"Fine. But only because there's a dope ass cafe that I love to go to. I really want to go there again." I say and Tobin smiles before we both change out of our Thorns uniforms. Yeah, we're still wearing them, since it's May, I put on some jeans and my black high tops with my grey Keeper shirt, yeah, Ashlyn's clothing line, and Ash's AH snapback. "Ready?" I ask Tobin, who is dressed similarly. She nods and I smile a little, grabbing my phone and wallet, leading Tobin out of the hotel and toward campus.
"You know, I'm not alone on the USWNT." I say to Tobin as we walk next to each other.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that there's a fellow bulldog in a family of someone on our current roster."
"Who? Kelley?" Tobin asks and I shake my head.
"Nope. No O'Hara that's related to Squirrel at UGA."
"So who?"
"Emily."
"Emily? She went to University of Virginia."
"But her twin went to UGA with me. Hell, I was warming up with her when Jill came to practice to invite me to my first camp." I say and Tobin smiles.
"That's dope. But I've got fellow UNC alumni on the field with me." Tobin says and I shrug.
"This just means that I'm a history maker." I say as we reach campus. "What do you want to see first, North Carolina?" I ask and she chuckles.
"How about you just show me around?" She asks and I shrug.
"Alright, let's go." I say before showing her around campus, pointing out Rooker Hall, the dorm building I stayed in. "They've got some nice ass dorms in there." I say and Tobin raises an eyebrow at me.
"How nice?"
"Single dorm, kitchenette, bathroom and living area." I say and she nods.
"Pretty nice. No sharing a shower or bathroom with the entire dorm building or fear of creeps, or foot fungus, or sharp stuff."
"Exactly." I say before showing her to the arch.
"What's that?"
"Something only yours truly gets to pass through. Go around, UNC." I say and Tobin rolls her eyes, going around as I walk through, only to be stopped by a student.
"You can't do that. Only graduates can."
"Exactly, I graduated three years ago." I say and the poor kid blushes.
"My bad."
"You're good." I say before walking off with Tobin. I show her the bell and everything else before leading her to the cafe I was talking about, so I lead her in and order two of my favorites because she was taking forever and sit outside with her.
"You look like you miss this place. You should move here."
"And play where?"
"Portland still."
"I don't have the money to be flying out for every game. I stay in Portland with you." I say and Tobin smiles. "This place is just a little haven for me. It's not home, but it's not unwelcoming either."
"Your getaway."
"Exactly." I say as we finish our food and throw away our trash, still drinking our coffees as we go down the street to the spirit shop across the street from the school, when I walk in, I smile a little before taking some time to look at all the merch in the store before buying a few things and leaving with Tobin shaking her head at me. "Be quiet. Okay?" I say and she holds her hands up.
"Not saying a word."
That night, when we get back to the hotel, I get a shower and get in bed while Tobin showers. In the morning, I groan as I hear yelling from the room next to ours and look at the time 11 in the morning, so I sit up and look at Tobin, who is reading with her headphones in, so I knock on the door that connects our room and the room next to us, the yelling stops and I sigh, sitting back on the bed, since the beds were across the room from the door, as soon as I sit down, the door opens and Ashlyn smiles at me, so I just glare at her.
"Aw, someone's cranky."
"Gee, wonder why, Ash, you only woke me up. Asshole." I say and Ashlyn tackles me to the bed in a hug that I don't reciprocate.
"Don't make me." Ash says and I look up at her.
"You wouldn't."
"Oh, but I would. I would tickle you until you snort in front of Tobin." Ash says and I quickly wrap her in a tight hug. "That's what I thought." Ash says before getting off of me.
"Ash, leave Y/N/N, alone." Alex says, coming into the room and hugging me.
"She started it. She knocked on our door.
"I don't care. You woke her up, fucking rude." Alex says and Ash sighs as Alex drags her out of mine and Tobin's room and back into theirs, closing the door behind her, so I listen to Alex talking with Ash for a second.
"Come on, I just want to spend time with her." Ash protests.
"Did you not see Y/N, Ash? The girl looks exhausted. Let her rest. When she's rested, you can hang out with her." Alex says and I smile to myself, snuggling up to Tobin, who wraps her arms around me and kisses my head while continuing to read, so I decide to read what she's reading and start from half way down the second page and finish reading it when Tobin turns the page and it goes like that for a while. Until about two, when I get bored and slip from Tobin's grasp to brush my teeth and get ready for the day, when I leave my room, I bump into Emily.
"Sorry." Emily says and I shrug.
"No worries." I say and she chuckles, pointing at my shirt.
"Once a Bulldog always a Bulldog, huh?" She asks and I nod.
"Gotta represent." I say and she chuckles.
When I go down stairs, I run into Alex, Ashlyn, Kelley, Carli and Moe and Ash lets out a low whistle.
"Someone's looking sharp today. Date night?" She asks and I smirk, looking down at my black vans, black jeans, a UGA shirt that's reminiscent of Portland's 2016 jersey, going from black to red from the waist, but not on the sleeves like the jersey, a big black G on my chest, a UGA snap back on my head, shades on my eyes, and a watch around my wrist.
"Yeah."
"Ooh, where's Tobin?"
"Reading."
"So who you on a date with?" She asks and I wink at Ash.
"You, boo." I say and Ash chuckles. "No but seriously, let's go stuff our faces." I say and Ash nods, getting up and following me out of the hotel.