A/N: for this chapter it's best if your familiar with Mapi's tattoos, so I included two pics where almost all of her tattoos are visible below:) The lion, compass, "love yourself" and looks can be deceiving play a part in this chapter!

It's almost been a week since I scored my first goal for Barca and honestly, the time has just been flying. We got the Sunday after the game off and I spent it at the beach with Laura. On Monday, practice started again and while it was still as hard as always, the temperature has constantly been dropping which allowed me to perform better. Even Jonatan noticed and promised me to let me start if I did well at our game against Bilbao tomorrow.

Sadly, Ingrid still wasn't speaking to me, and she wasn't the only one; Klara hadn't been returning any of my calls which really worried me as we had an international break coming up soon. I already wasn't looking forward to seeing Sydney again and with Klara ignoring me, I frankly just didn't want to go. Of course, this wasn't an option and I didn't want to risk my spot in the German team. With my mother being Chilean, I had been called up for the Chilean national team as well but as the German team was one of the best in the world I didn't want to give up on them just because of some disagreements.

Nevertheless, I didn't want to overthink it too much as we were already on our way to Bilbao, in fact we'd arrive at the hotel in a few minutes. The thought about me having to share a room with someone I didn't know that well made me feel quite uneasy. At Bayern, I always shared a room with Klara, and I had originally hoped to continue this tradition with Laura until I learned that we'd be assigned a roommate unless the stay was more than one or two nights. In all honesty, I just hoped it wouldn't be Ingrid.

The bus slowed down and eventually came to a stop in front of a big hotel.

I gently poked Laura into her upper arm. "Wach auf, wir sind da." ("Wake up, we're here") I whispered.

Before we were allowed to leave the bus, Jonatan went over our schedule and room arrangements with us.

"You're free to do whatever you want for the next two hours. At 5 pm I expect everyone back in the hotel lobby in the sponsored outfit which is already in your hotel room. We'll then go on a walk together and some of you are gonna have social media duties until we eat dinner at 19:30. Does anyone have any questions about that?" Jonatan explained, before taking a sheet and a box, presumably with our keys inside, from our assistant coach. "Now, when I call your name, you're allowed to leave the bus and I'll be handing you your room key."

Nervously, I started playing with my hair.

"In room 610 we have Ingrid and Laura." I watched as Laura got up and left the room, leaving me alone in our row. Surely Ingrid wouldn't have a problem with Laura just because she thought there was something going on between Mapi and me.

"Next we've got Mapi and Emilia in room 611."

My heart was racing as I got up and took my key from Jonatan. I didn't know whether I should be happy or not about having to share a room with Mapi. On one side, I really liked spending time with her and her presence always made me feel at ease, but on the other side I still didn't fully trust Mapi because of the way she treated me in the beginning. Additionally, Ingrid would definitely rip my head off.

"So, I guess we're roommates, princesa" Mapi grinned as we made our way inside of the hotel.

"That is if we survive the most awkward elevator ride of our lives" I murmured as I noticed Ingrid and Laura just getting into the elevator. To say it was awkward was an underestimation. Ingrid was ignoring both Mapi and me, while Laura, oblivious to what was going on, tried to strike up a conversation. While we probably one spent a minute in the elevator, it felt like an hour, with the tension being unbearable.

I let out a loud sigh when we finally closed the door to our room.

"Well... that was awkward." I complained as I let myself fall on one of the beds. "You better tell your girlfriend to behave."

"She's not my girlfriend, never has and never will be" Mapi stated while was observing our sponsored outfit for later. It consisted of a blue Nike t-shirt which had culers written in red on it and dark blue shorts.

"Then why is she acting like this?" I wondered, catching the Nike outfit Mapi had just thrown to me.

"We hooked up a few times during summer" Mapi shrugged. "She can't accept it's over."

"So you pulled a typical María León on her."

"You need to sop believing Alexia's stories, I promise I'm not that bad. Alexia is just mad I dumped her sister." Unbothered by my presence, she started undressing, leaving me with a good view of all the tattoos on her back.

I couldn't help but let my gaze wander over her toned back, taking in every small detail of her tattoos. As I was just admiring the big lion, she turned around with a smirk. "You know, I can feel you starring, princesa."

"Don't flatter yourself, I was just looking at your tattoos" I blushed uncontrollably.

"Oh, yeah?" She slowly came closer, dressed in nothing but black lace underwear, until she was stood right in front of me. "Which one do you like best?"

As I sat up, I let my gaze wander over her body and slowly lifted my arm. Gently, my fingers started tracing her tattoos on her left arm, the mere touch being enough to electrify my whole body. My fingers wandered to her upper arm, before touching the love yourself tattoo right above her breast. I could hear heavy breathing, but in all honesty, I didn't know if it was coming from me or her, or both of us. My fingers continued their journey to her right arm until they stopped at a tattoo of a compass. As I looked up, I caught her biting her lip while looking me straight into the eyes.

"This is my favorite" I whispered, not breaking eye contact.

Mapi swallowed audibly. "What others do you like?" She murmured.

I slowly got up until we were standing face to face and brought my hand up to her neck. "How could anyone not like your stupid neck tattoo."

Before she could reply, I heard a firm knock on our door. "Em, bist du da?" ("Em, are you there?") Laura's voice sounded through the door. I threw Mapi an agitated look. "Get dressed!" I commanded.

Defensively, she held up her hands and backed away. "Calm down, princesa."

I waited until she was at least wearing a t-shirt until I hastily slipped out the door, completely confused over what had just happened.

***

To say the rest of the evening was awkward, was an underestimation. While Mapi and I weren't necessarily ignoring each other, we also made sure to stay as far away from each other as possible at all given times. I didn't tell Laura what had happened between Mapi and me as I quite frankly didn't understand it myself. In that moment, I had felt so drawn to Mapi as I had never felt to anyone before, but it wasn't like I wanted to kiss her or anything like that. She wasn't even my type, so it definitely didn't mean that I liked her. It couldn't, anyway. After all the drama that went down with Sydney at Bayern Munich, I promised myself to never get with one of my teammates. Ingrid and Mapi were the prime example of why it's a terrible idea to do that.

I quietly opened the door to Mapi and my room as I had seen her leave dinner earlier than me and didn't want to wake her up in case she was already sleeping. A quick glance to her bed confirmed my suspicion; Mapi seemed to already be asleep.

After I had finished my night routine, I climbed into my bed and unlocked my phone. In retrospect, I wished I had just gone to bed and hadn't witnessed Sydney's story.

sydneylohmann's story 5 hours ago

Suddenly, it all made sense. Klara hadn't been mad at me for leaving, she was probably glad I had finally left her alone and just wanted me out of the picture to reconcile her friendship with Sydney. My best friend traded me for the girl who had made my life a living nightmare. As the tears were rushing down my face I didn't realize how loudly I was crying until I heard Mapi telling me to scoot over. As if I was in a trance, I did what she said without actually understanding what I was doing. I felt her arm around my shoulders and started sobbing uncontrollably against her neck. Thinking back to that night, I never remembered if I told her what had happened and, quite frankly, I didn't remember most of that night anyway. But what I'd always keep in my mind for the rest of my life was that Mapi hadn't left my side for the whole night even if it meant that neither of us performed at our best the next day. In some ways, she might have saved my life that night. After all, I guess looks really were deceiving.