Barcelona, Spain - December 20, 2024

Two days until Barcelona meets Bayern.

Laura's point of view:

It was raining heavily outside as I followed Ingrid into her apartment after our last training before leaving for Munich early in the morning the following day.

"Have you finished packing for Christmas break?" the dark-haired midfielder wanted to know as she hung her completely soaked, bright yellow raincoat on a coat hook next to her door.

Both Emilia and I would be leaving for our well-deserved Christmas break right after the Bayern game since it made absolutely no sense to go back to Barcelona with the team just to return to Germany right away. "I'm almost done," I nodded, walking into Ingrid's kitchen. "Honestly, I can't wait to be in Germany again."

"Unlike Emilia," Ingrid joked, questioningly glancing into her almost empty fridge.

"She didn't seem happy at all today," I agreed. "Apparently Mapi left for Zaragoza yesterday. Seems like I'm winning our bet after all. "

Ever since Ingrid and I went to the hospital with Emilia and Mapi, we had an ongoing bet on when the two would become an official couple, Ingrid's guess being before Christmas. However, I would gladly lose the bet if it meant the Norwegian international would finally acknowledge the other part of the night at the hospital, the one where I came out to her. Knowing that I opened up to Ingrid and she completely ignored it, hurt, especially when she had been extremely distant for the first days few afterward. I desperately needed to talk to her about it, but I had successfully been pushing it away.

"It's not Christmas yet," the dark-haired midfielder defended her guess.

"I reckon they won't reconcile over FaceTime, with Em in Munich and Mapi in Zaragoza," I laughed, glancing over Ingrid's shoulder. "Do you have some Tofu left?"

"For fuck's sake, not that inedible shit again," the Norwegian complained, leaning her head on my shoulder in disappointment when she saw there was in fact some left.

Trying not to reveal that the touch was sending sparks through my body, I grabbed the tofu and some vegetables out of the fridge and carried them to the kitchen counter. "Stop complaining, at least you don't have to cook."

"I definitely won't miss the tofu," Ingrid sighed, taking a seat on a little, gray chair in the corner of the kitchen while I started chopping the vegetables. I already knew my way around her apartment, especially her kitchen, after having spent almost every evening after practice here for the past month.

"You're so excited about going back to Norway, I doubt you'll miss anything here," I joked, grabbing a pan out of the drawer. "I wouldn't be surprised if you just never returned."

"That's a lie! I'll definitely miss you, a lot even," the tall Norwegian admitted truthfully. "Speaking of not returning, has Jonatan spoken to you about the loan again?"

As I was cutting the remaining tofu into small cubes, I unsurely nodded. "I think so? He didn't mention the loan specifically, but he said he wants me to try out as a defender. I used to play as a center back when I was younger, so I hope my spot here is safe until Mapi returns from her injury."

"Which unfortunately for you won't be too long," Ingrid noted sadly, her gaze falling to the floor. "I really hope you'll get to stay here, Laura."

Surprised, I turned around to her while I was attempting to put the vegetables into the pan, causing some of them to fall to the ground. "Scheisse," I mumbled annoyedly, kneeling to pick them up. "Seriously?"

"Of course?" the midfielder replied puzzledly as she was watching me struggle with the vegetables. "Do you think I don't want you here? You're literally my favorite person."

"Do you always ignore your favorite person after she comes out to you?" I confronted her jokingly, throwing the dirty vegetables into the trash.

Ingrid stayed quiet for a while, the only audible sound coming from the sautéing of the remaining veggies. "I-I'm sorry," she suddenly broke the silence, slowly getting up and coming closer to me, until we were only separated by a few centimeters. "I should have reacted better."

"I just don't understand. It's not like you're homophobic or anything, you're literally gay yourself," I sighed, turning my face back to the stove to add the tofu to the mix. Honestly, I had to admit that Ingrid had been right; it was truly a sad dish, especially after we had already been eating the same for weeks.

But in retrospect, it would definitely fit the later mood.

"Yeah, it's not that," Ingrid laughed nervously, wrapping her cold fingers around my arm. "It's just... I don't know."

"That's not really an answer, is it?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Of course not, but I- I don't wanna jeopardize our friendship. You truly mean the world to me and I can't lose you," the Norwegian international mumbled sadly, her eyes focusing on the wall behind me.

I turned my face back in her direction, but she deliberately avoided my gaze. "Inga, what is this about? You won't ever lose me, don't you know that by now?"

Suddenly, her gaze unexpectedly met mine and I could see right into her watery eyes. "You never cared to mention to me that you were into girls as well, but you said it so easily to Mapi. It just made me feel as if you didn't want me to know... and it made me realize that everything between us was just in my mind."

"What's just in your mind?" I asked quietly, my eyes resting on hers as my breathing accelerated, unsure if I was reading too much into this.

"I like you. A lot. And I thought you might feel the same way, but then I realized that if you did you would have mentioned being into girls, so... I don't know. I'm sorry and I- I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, I totally understand if you want to leave now," Ingrid admitted shyly, removing her hand from my arm and taking a step back.

I could feel my blood rushing through my whole body as my mind slowly went blank. "Ingrid, I- I-..."

I what? My brain was unable to form a proper thought, let alone a whole sentence.

"I'm so sorry Laura," Ingrid murmured ashamedly, a tear running down her face as she was taking yet another step back.

"It wasn't just in your mind," I finally said, unsurely coming a little closer to the tall Norwegian.

I wasn't used to this.

Automatically, my hand found its way to Ingrid's face, gently wiping a tear away before settling under her chin to bring her head down a little.

I might be tall, but definitely not as tall as her.

Both of us didn't dare to say a word as our eyes found each other again, sparks flying from mine into hers. Never in my life had I longed for something so much as I just wanted to feel her lips on mine at this moment, so I slowly raised my head as much as possible, my face now only a few millimeters away from hers.

I could feel her fast, warm breath on my skin, making mine accelerate even more, especially when I suddenly noticed her firm grip on my waist. Without giving it a second thought, my lips finally found hers, the touch making my body feel as if someone had electrocuted it. I let out a surprised gasp, my hand wandering to her neck to pull her as close as it was possible while my other hand was discovering every inch of her.

As she opened her mouth a little, our tongues met immediately, allowing me to taste even more of her. It soon mixed with the so-familiar smell of her perfume, so flowery and... burnt?

"Fuck, our tofu!" I suddenly remembered, breathlessly pulling away from the Norwegian and hastily turning back to the stove.

But it was way too late.

"There's no way I'm eating this now!" Ingrid protested eagerly, slowly wanting to remove her hand from my back, but I firmly stopped her movement after quickly shoving the pan with the now black tofu cubes to the side.

"That's a problem for later," I grinned, intertwining our fingers as I shyly placed another kiss on her lips.

I just couldn't get enough of her.

With a huge smile, Ingrid used her free hand to remove a strand of hair from my face, her thumb gently caressing my cheek afterward. "Is that so?"

"Yes," I chuckled, slightly blushing at her intense gaze. "I- I just need to tell you something."

"What is it?" the Norwegian wanted to know, worryingly raising her dark eyebrow.

"This is my first time kissing a girl," I admitted a little bit ashamed, unsurely averting my eyes from her. "That's the reason I didn't tell you that I was into girls... It wasn't because I didn't like you, in fact, you were the one who made me realize."

Ingrid's eyes seemed to grow bigger and bigger before she buried her face in her hands, my body instantly missing her touch. "Seriously? And I reacted the way I did... Oh my god, Laura, I'm so sorry I had no idea..."

Gently taking her hands into mine, I removed them from her face as I sent her a big smile. "You don't need to apologize," I stopped her torrent of words, my lips softly brushing against her cheek as I came closer. "In fact, you don't need to talk at all."

The Norwegian's lips hungrily crashed onto mine again, her hands letting go of mine and settling just under the hem of my pullover. My stomach tightened at her touch and I seemed to forget how to breathe, throwing my head back a little. The midfielder took the chance to press her lips onto my neck, causing a small moan to escape me.

Just as my hands were moving lower on her back, we were interrupted once again, but this time by someone frantically ringing Ingrid's doorbell.

"What the... Who's that?" I sighed annoyedly as the two of us curiously made our way to the door.

"Probably Keira or Lucy needing an egg or something," Ingrid shrugged. The two chaotic English internationals were living on the top floor of the midfielder's building and often relied on their teammate's usually stocked fridge. Of course, with the holidays coming up they chose the wrong moment to snatch some of Ingrid's food.

As Ingrid opened the door, we stumbled right onto Emilia, her usually so lively eyes being puffy and red, tears still streaming down her face. "I knew I'd find you here," my German teammate sniffled sadly, immediately falling into Ingrid's open arms.

"What happened?" I asked worryingly, shutting the door close again before turning back to her.

"It's Mapi," Emilia cried into Ingrid's shoulder, her words muffled by the cloth of the Norwegian's hoodie. "She- she joined Arsenal."

The End.

*

Not all stories need a happy ending.

I'm kidding...

Right?

*

10 minutes later, we were all sat on Ingrid's big couch, Emilia squeezed in the middle of us with a hot chocolate in her hands that Ingrid had kindly prepared for her. It made her calm down a little, making me hope she'd finally elaborate more on the Arsenal situation but instead simply wrinkled her nose.

"It smells like tofu in here," Emilia stated, her puffed eyes carefully scanning the room. "Do you have any left?"

"Technically yes, but it's burnt," Ingrid laughed, her gaze finding mine over Emilia's head which instantly made my heart skip a beat. "I could make you an avocado toast though if you're hungry?"

"No, I couldn't get anything down anyway," the German mumbled quietly, tears once again welling up in her eyes. "I-I can't believe she left..."

"Emilia, what happened?" I asked softly, my fingers caressing her back.

Without saying a word, my friend pulled her phone out, showing us an Instagram post from a football news outlet.

"Wow, that's a world record fee," Ingrid gaped in astonishment, instantly receiving two angry looks from Emilia and me.

"Obviously, that's not all we care about here," I quickly interjected, mentally laughing about Ingrid's insensitive comment. "But, Em, it's just a rumor. It doesn't have to mean anything. The winter transfer window isn't even open yet."

With tears running down her face, Emilia looked at me, her whole face showing how broken and hurt she was by the news. "She can still sign the contract now and join in January, especially since she doesn't need to be in Barcelona due to her injury... and it's not just a rumor, honestly I can't believe I didn't figure it out earlier. It all makes sense now."

"What makes sense?" Ingrid wanted to know, her gaze worryingly wandering between Emilia and me.

After inhaling deeply, Emilia took another sip of her beverage, getting ready to tell us the whole story;

"I should have known from the beginning. The first night that I spent at hers, she made it clear that Barca wasn't her home anymore after everything that had happened..."

(Flashback)"There's just too much that has happened in the last two years. Barca used to be my home, now it's nothing more than my work. But after all, football is my job, so I try not to worry about it too much."

"The day Lucy got injured, I wanted to hang out with Mapi after our match but she said she had an important meeting... on a Saturday afternoon? I bet it was with her manager."

(Flashback) "However, I have to disappoint you. I sadly have an important meeting today, but I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"But I highly doubt she had already had some specific plans in mind back then. At least not until a month later... I was back at her apartment for the first time since we kinda started dating and there was an English book on her couch table, even though she hates English!"

(Flashback)" "Learn English" in 90 days. That's quite ambitious."

"Honestly, I haven't gotten far."

"Shortly before the international break, we went back to hers after practice and there was a stupid letter from Arsenal in her mail. I don't know how I hadn't caught on by then, because how should they have gotten her address?"

(Flashback)"Does Arsenal send you personalized ads or...?"

"Usually just to my manager, but it seems like they can't get enough of me."

"And then of course Frida telling us someone was gonna join them from Barcelona..."

(Flashback)"So, I usually play for Arsenal and there's a rumor going around that we're signing one of your players in the winter transfer window! Any idea who we could possibly get?"

"After Mapi got injured, I went back to her apartment and there was a packed suitcase. She said it was still from the international break, but I know better now... I don't know how I didn't connect the dots when she took that exact suitcase to Zaragoza."

(Flashback)"Are you going on a trip?"

"What? N-no it's still there from the international break."

"But the worst part is, that she was super sentimental before our last home game. I thought it was because she was injured and I felt so bad for her, that's why I made sure to score all those goals for her. And now I found out it was because she knew it would be the last home game of her being a Barcelona player."

(Flashback) "Don't say that. You're gonna be back on this pitch in no time."

"Hopefully, but...but if not... score for me today, Princesa, will you?"

Emilia sobbingly finished up her story, exhaustedly resting her head on my shoulder.

"Shit, that doesn't sound too good," Ingrid admitted, gently putting her arm around the crying German. "Have you talked to her?"

"I tried reaching out, but she hasn't replied to me ever since she allegedly left to visit her parents in Zaragoza," Emilia sighed, burying her face in my pullover, her whole body trembling restlessly. 

Ingrid was right. It definitely didn't sound good.

A/N: Who was smarter than Emilia and connected the dots before her?:)