"Yes, Fishy! Get it!" Ash yells as we work in the gym as usual. "Harder!" She yells again and I grit my teeth as I hit the pads harder. "Faster! Come on!" I growl to myself and speed up. "Stop!" She yells after a short while and I huff, stopping and moving my sweaty hair out of my face, back into its place atop my head. "Let's go get breakfast." She says and I nod, taking the gloves and wrist wrap off my hands and catching my shirt when Ash tosses it at me, taking the mouth guard out of my mouth, yeah, I know I don't need it really if it's just training, but it's me, I'd hurt myself with a foam cube. When we get up to the breakfast nook, everyone looks at us like we're weird, well, I mean, I am, but like.
"Yo, you're missing something." Kling says, pointing her fork at me and I grab my shirt from the back waistband of my shorts.
"No I'm not." I say, kissing Tobin softly before going and getting food with Ashlyn. When I sit down Carli just stares at me. "Car, take a picture." I say and laugh when Carli rolls her eyes at me.
"Put your shirt on." Carli says and I sigh, but put my shirt on.
"Dammit, Carli, I thought I was going to have to run Y/N." I hear Dawn say from behind me and I heave a relieved sigh as Carli winks at me.
"Thanks, Car." I say and she shrugs, going back to eating as I start eating.
After breakfast, most of the team was on the level with the arcade, which wasn't much, a couple game cabinets and a pool table, but it kept us entertained there was a Krashlyn pool game going on while Tobin and Kelley argued about who would win their game, Syd was playing a racing game, and doing terrible, Kling was playing Pac-Man, and the rest of us were sitting on the couches in front of the TV a little ways away from all that chaos watching Paranormal Activity 3.
"Don't see why this shit is scary." I mumble.
"Okay, not everyone watches ghost shit and Supernatural all day." Moe says and I laugh.
"Y/N! Come show Syd how to win these things!" Kling yells out, so I get up and go over to Syd, smiling as she gets out, slapping a Euro into my palm, so I put it in the machine, pick my car, my track and go through the race, winning it and looking over at Syd.
"Even if I did all of that, I'd still lose."
"Practice makes perfect, Syd, a childhood full of racing games has made me the humble racer I am today." I say, laughing as I finish the sentence, getting up, letting Syd have the game back as I go watch Krashlyn as they play pool.
"Don't choke!" Ashlyn calls out as Ali takes a shot and I snort as Ali misses.
"Ash, that's cheating." I say and Ash raises a brow at me.
"No, cheating is nailing someone besides her, but I'd never do that." Ash says and Ali nods.
"Sure, Ash," She says and I laugh.
"I'm going to my room to sleep if you need me, don't." I say, heading to the elevators.
-
Tobin
-
"Hey, Ash."
"Yeah."
"Lemme see your key card." I say and Ash looks at me as Ali takes her turn, taking her key card out of her pocket, holding it out to me, pulling it back as I reach for it.
"For what?" She asks and I sigh.
"I'm gonna use it to get into Jill's room." I deadpan and Ash rolls her eyes. "I just want to spend time with my girlfriend." I say and look at Kelley when she smacks my shoulder. "You're gonna win, you know that." I say and she sighs.
"True." Kelley says as Ash hands me her key card.
"Play nice." Ash says and I roll my eyes, taking the card and jogging to the elevators. When I get to her room, I furrow my brow when I see that the door is open, but open the door, thinking she was too lazy to close it and was asleep, but stop when I'm met with an empty room.
-
Ashlyn
-
"Ashlyn!" I hear Tobin yell and I look up from where I was about to take my turn. "Ash." Tobin says, jogging over to me.
"Tobs, what's wrong?" I ask and she sighs.
"Y/N isn't in the room."
"She's probably working out." I say and Tobin sighs.
"All her workout clothes are there, her phone is there too." Tobin says and I set the stick against the table, everybody's attention now on us.
"She might be out getting food. Spur of the moment." I say and Tobin hesitates. "She's fine. She's too damn sassy to be kidnapped, if she was, I'm 100% sure that her kidnappers would pay us to take her back." I say and Tobin nods.
"That's rude, but I'm too worried to care right now." Tobin says and I sigh.
"Kelley, finish for me, Tobs, key card." I say and she hands me my key card. "I'll be back." I say and head out, to the gym, she's not there, or in the pool.
-
Y/N
-
"Bonjour et bienvenue à Le Loft Danse." The man behind the desk greets and I smile.
"Merci pour l'invitation. Je vous en suis reconnaissant." I say and he smiles.
"Y/N Y/L/N?" He asks and I nod.
"Oui, je suis elle."
"Par ici. Nous avons un studio qui vous attend."
-
Ashlyn
-
"Hey, Jill, I can't find Y/N, do you happen to know where she is?" I ask Jill after I see her sitting in the lobby.
"Yeah, she left a while ago, said she was going for a walk."
"How long is a while ago?"
"Fifteen minutes maybe. Why?"
"She told the girls in the arcade she was going to the room to sleep."
"Well, she said she was going to a place called Le Loft Danse." Jill says and I furrow my brow, so I pull my phone out of my pocket and google it.
"A dance studio."
"That's what she said it was." Jill says and I nod going up to the arcade again to look for Tobin.
"Did you find her?"
"She's at a dance studio."
"She didn't at least tell us?"
"It's Y/N." I say and Tobin sighs. "Do you want to go check on her?" I ask and Tobin nods, so I walk with her and tell Jill we're going to go make sure she really is at the dance studio and go hail a taxi, Tobin tells the driver where to go, because she's got some knowledge of the language, and pays the driver when we pull up to the studio before heading in with me behind her, when we walk in, a guy behind the desk gives us a friendly smile.
"Bonjour et bienvenue à Le Loft Danse." He says and Tobin smiles.
"Bonjour."
"Comment puis-je t'aider?" He asks.
"Y/N Y/L/N." Tobin says and the man nods.
"Suis moi." He says, walking away, waving us with him, so we follow him to a door with music blasting behind it, he opens the door and points to Y/N dancing in the middle of a circle with a couple of other girls, the amount of concentration on her face rivaling the amount on her face during training.
"Je vous remercie." Tobin says and the man nods, following us back to the front of the building, where we leave, and walk back to the hotel, since it's a short distance back to the hotel surprisingly.
Later that night, Y/N comes in, shuts the door behind her and looks up at me before giving me a smile.
"Hey, Sharky." She says before disappearing into the bathroom.
The next day for training, we're with Dawn in the weight room, so we all work like we need to and head back to the hotel exhausted. Work ethic stays the same up until game day, where we all gather in the locker room before the game and get dressed silently, you know, until Y/N comes out of the training room after getting her ankle wrapped.
"You guys act like we're about to play Japan in a World Cup." Y/N mumbles as she walks over to her locker, pulling on her jersey and changing out of her sweats into her shorts, pulling her warm up pants on before pulling out her beats pill and tossing it to Crystal, who starts playing music from it. As we warm up, we're all more relaxed than we were when we got off the bus, and smiling, laughing and being us like usual. When the starters line up, the subs go sit on the bench, and Y/N is starting on the bench, despite her spending three hours practicing after practice all week.
-
Y/N
-
I sit on the bench bouncing my knee and look up when Dawn calls my name.
"Warm up." She says and I nod, getting up and going to warm up. After a few minutes, she calls me and tells me to go get JJ.
"Back line?" I ask and she nods, so I shrug and go over to the fourth official, telling him I'm going in for Julie, saying her number of course. When subs are called, I take Julie's place and get in her place, waiting for the game to resume, when it does Canada gets possession rather fast, and they get the ball to Christine, and she tries to get past me, but I keep her in front of me, anticipating most of what she does, but meg her accidentally when I don't move my foot and smirk as the ball goes up to Carli, laughing at the odd luck of the incident before following the ball up the field, taking the drop from Alex, since the midfield had pushed up to offer support and shoot when I'm told to by everyone, I think I even heard Christine yell it to, and yell happily as the ball hits the back of the net, celebrating with Alex and the girls before getting ready for the kick off, Alex gets the ball pretty fast, and makes considerable progress, but is dispossessed by Desiree, she gets into my territory, and I dispossess her, passing to Ali rather poorly, and a shot is taken, but Ash deflects it behind for a Canadian corner. We set up for the corner, and the cross is sent in, but I get my foot on it, leveling the ball, and hauling ass up the field, I beat the two defenders that weren't in the box and continue with my break, taking another shot, dropping to my knees as it hits the cross bar, not for drama, but because my clumsy ass tripped, Carli levels the ball as I get back up and I run into space, taking the ball and sending a cross in, watching Alex try to head in, but the keeper keeps the ball in her gloves, so we fall back for a goal kick. Ball gets to Canada's feet and another corner is given, this time, Alex blocks a shot with her legs, and heads up field with the ball as I deal with Scott and her bitchy ass, and as I'm about to run up field and offer some support for Tobin, Scott grabs my wrist, pulls me back slightly and socks me in the face, so I of course hit the ground, what else am I supposed to do? Fucking back flips? I was sucker punched.
-
Kelley
-
As we were heading up the field to support Tobin, I see Scott punch Y/N in the face, and the whistle isn't blown until Alex gets in the box with the ball, so I go over to Y/N as she lays on the ground, hands over her face, and her jaw clenched, I rest a hand on her stomach and she moves her hand, fat lip.
"It's throbbing." She says and I nod, helping her to her feet.
"I know," I say as the ref comes up.
"Stop fighting." She says and I sigh as Y/N glares at the ref.
"Tell that to Scott, ref! She's the one that assaulted me!" Y/N shouts, so I grab her and pull her away from the ref. "Fuckers need to learn how to do their damn jobs." She grumbles, and I watch as the ref jogs over to Scott and tosses her hand in the air with a red card in her grip. "Yeah, that's how things are supposed to go." Y/N grumbles, spitting blood on the turf in front of her. "Bitch." Y/N says before getting back into the game.
-
Y/N
-
When we go in for half time, Paul pulls me to the side and checks me for a concussion before giving me some water to rinse my mouth out, spitting out the bloody water, before going to the locker room to listen to the ass end of Tobin's speech before Jill and the rest of the staff come in to speak with us.
"Y/N." Dawn says and I nod. "You alright?" She asks and I nod again.
"Yeah. I'm fine now. Just ready to go back out there and put Canada in their places, back in their country. I'm not about to lose this World Cup because of a little whack." I say and the entire staff nod. When we go back out for the second half, I'm up front with Alex, and Carli's already told me that she's gonna give me her armband when she's subbed out in the fiftieth minute, I've learned not to try to refuse the armband, because it'll be strapped onto my arm despite my protests, so It's best to just go with it and agree. As Mal and I kick off the second half, I pass her the ball and run up into shape and keep it as the ball goes through the midfield to try and get either Mal or I open, so I rush into space and take the ball from Moe, beating a few defenders before sending Mal a through pass and watch as she scores. We celebrate the third goal of the game before getting back into shape for Canada's kick off, when they do kick off, I rush up and take the ball from a midfielder by sealing her out and making my way up the field, I get past the back line in the right wing, so I send in a cross and cheer as I see the ball hit the back of the net, since my foot slipped on the now slick turf, since it started raining during half time. I get to my knees just as Tobin tackles me in a very celebratory hug. "I take it you got your Tobin Heath ass on the end of that?" I ask, laughing as the rest of the girls join the pile.
"Fuck yeah I did." She says and I laugh, accepting her help off of the ground, getting back in our half for another kick off, but watch as the whistle is blown for subs and Carli's jersey number is on the board being replaced by Sam's. So Carli takes her armband off as she walks over to me, puts it around my arm and jogs off, letting Sam take her place.
"I hate being trusted by the captains." I mumble to myself before the whistle is blown and watch the ball, it gets past me shamefully easy, but our defenders come in clutch, Ali gets the ball and looks up field, so I jog up field and wait for the ball to go over the heads of the defenders before breaking past the back line, leveling the ball and heading toward goal, keeper's off her line, so I skill my ass past her and score again, laughing as my girlfriend jumps on my back, screaming happily while the rest of the girls join the celebration.
-
Tobin
-
My fucking girlfriend, just, my damn girlfriend, girl is on fire today.
"How about a hat trick for your Thorns Captain?" Christine suggests as we pass her on our way to our half again for another kick off.
"Which one?" Y/N asks and Christine shrugs, winking, so Y/N laughs, but gets in position again, and everyone but Y/N share looks with each other, knowing we all want to get our stand in captain a hat trick. When the whistle is blown, Y/N pushes up to defend Christine, who doesn't go easy on Y/N, but she still gets possession before dropping to Pinoe who comes up on Y/N's right and pushes up with the ball, Pinoe beats the back line and Y/N gets into the box, levels Pinoe's cross, and fires it toward goal, perfectly placed, and it's in for her hat trick of the night. We all group around her, celebrating the 5-2 score. The rest of the game is boring, nothing happens for either, team, but when the game ends, Y/N is given the game ball and we interact with fans before heading into the locker room, where Y/N's hat trick is loudly celebrated. She hands the ball off when she comes in and heads to the training room to free her ankle from it's tape job. When she comes back, Sonnett tosses Y/N a signed game ball and Y/N smiles, looking at it as she sits down, before setting the ball to the side to get out of her kit and back into her sweats and black UGA shirt with her slides on her feet, and everything else in her kit bag.
When we get to the hotel, we all settle into our rooms for the night, exhausted, and recovery is before breakfast.
"Who's ready for a semi-final?" Y/N asks, slipping into the pool five minutes late to recovery.
"You're late." Dawn says and Y/N shrugs.
"Couldn't find my sports bras. Found them by the way. I'd rather be late than to come down to the pool with my tits flying everywhere, right?" Y/N asks and Dawn nods.
"Thank you for your courtesy, Y/N." Dawn says and Y/N nods.
"You're quite welcome, don't really think I have the metaphorical balls to come down to recovery like that." Y/N says and we chuckle at her. After recovery, we get out of the pool, wrap towels around our waists, and head to breakfast, since we've got a flight to Remis for the semi-finals, where we'll face the winners of the France/Germany game.