A/N: a new character is gonna be mentioned in this chapter...enjoy:)

English is gonna look like this.

As I was brushing my hair, I threw a look in the mirror in front of me, my green eyes blatantly staring back at me. They were the same green eyes as this summer, obviously, but at the same time, they weren't. Deep down, I knew something in me had changed ever since I left Bayern this summer for a fresh start in Barcelona. In retrospect, I could have possibly stayed here in Munich and talked everything out with Sydney as we should have years ago. But I now knew that every decision I had ever taken and every single thing that had ever happened to me, even the worst ones, had led me to Mapi, so I wouldn't have done anything differently.

With the thought of the blonde entering my mind once again, my gaze wandered to my phone screen which had been staying black for the last few hours as the Spaniard seemed to be busy with the preparations for her New Year's party back in Zaragoza. Sighing loudly, I picked it up to call Sydney for the millionth time in the last hour as she had promised to pick me up for the annual New Year's Eve party of the German national team.

Still no answer.

The Bayern Munich player was supposed to arrive at my parents' house at 19:00, so we could order some food and get ready together before leaving for the city at around 21:00.

It was now 20:06. Apparently I had brought the Spanish unpunctuality back to Germany with me.

While I was trying to decide whether I should order food for myself already, I suddenly heard the sound of a car engine coming closer to my house until it stopped.

Finally.

I didn't bother going down as I knew Sydney wouldn't have any issues finding my room, instead taking the time to reapply my lipstick for yet another time, while my family's voices arose excitedly downstairs. They all seemed more than happy that Sydney was back in my life and even invited her for dinner the other day.

The sound of steps came closer to my door until I heard Sydney opening it carefully.

"Schön, dass du auch endlich hier bist ("Nice that you're finally here")," I scoffed at the German midfielder, my back still turned to her.

"I left you alone in Germany for a week and you forgot how to speak Spanish?" a familiar voice joked, causing me to immediately spin around and stare at no one other than Mapi, who was standing in my doorway next to a grinning Sydney.

"Gefällt dir meine Überraschung? ("Do you like my surprise?")," the tall German asked curiously, her words causing me to finally wake up from my shock, throwing myself into Mapi's arms as she came closer.

Even though it had only been a week since I had last seen her, I had missed her so incredibly much.

"Why- how... what are you doing here? And what about your crutches?" I stammered, lost for words as I buried my head in the blonde's shoulder while her hands firmly pressed me even closer to her body.

"Sydney invited me. How could I say no to that? And I finally got rid of the crutches a few days ago! I thought I'd surprise you," Mapi replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world, her fingers finding their way to my face and lifting it until our gazes interlocked. "And to be completely honest, I missed you terribly, princesa. I just had to see you."

Even after all the countless times that I had stared into the blonde's beautiful, brown eyes before, my heart still started beating faster as I stepped on my tiptoes to press a quick, but loving kiss on Mapi's lips. "I'm so happy you're here," I whispered still in shock.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but dinner is ready downstairs," my mom suddenly interjected, appearing next to Sydney in the doorframe.

"Dinner? But I thought- " I asked confusedly, my eyes wandering between my mother, Sydney, and Mapi, all of them with big smiles on their faces. "Wait! You were in on this too, Mamá?"

"Of course I was. Sydney spoke to us after dinner the other day and we could all tell how much you missed María, so we obviously agreed," the small, older woman laughed lovingly, gently taking Mapi by her arm to lead her downstairs and throwing her a big smile. "Honestly, we were starting to miss you as well. It's so good to have you here."

"Gracias, Catalina," Mapi murmured, her cheeks blushing at the compliment as she was being dragged downstairs by my mother, leaving me alone in my room with Sydney.

"Du hast das alles organisiert? ("You organized all of that?")," I asked her in disbelief.

"Ja ("Yes")," the Bayern player shrugged with an unsure grin on her face. "Ich hoffe, das war in Ordnung? ("I hope that was okay?")"

"Machst du Witze? Ich könnte wirklich nicht glücklicher sein, danke! ("Are you joking? I seriously couldn't be happier, thank you!")," I smiled, pulling the German in a tight hug. "Du bist wirklich unschlagbar, Syd. Ich bin so froh, dich wieder in meinem Leben zu haben ("You are truly amazing Syd. I'm so glad to have you back in my life.")

"Ich bin froh, das zu hören... Ich war mir da nicht so sicher, nach allem, was wir durchgemacht haben. Darum dachte ich, dass... dass das vielleicht ein guter Weg ist, dir zu zeigen, wie leid es mir tut und dass unsere Freundschaft dieses Mal anders sein wird. Ich meine... Natürlich nur wenn du das auch willst.("I'm happy to hear that... I- I wasn't sure of that, after everything we had been through. So, I thought maybe that was a good way to show you how sorry I am and that our friendship will be different this time. I mean... If you want it to be, of course."), " Sydney murmured, her gaze unsurely finding mine.

"Ich habe dir schon längst verziehen, Syd ("You're long forgiven, Syd,"), " I reassured her by quickly squeezing her hand. "Aber wir gehen später immer noch zur Party, oder? ("But we're still going to the party later, right?")"

"Natürlich! ("Of course!")"

*

After making a quick stop to pick up Giulia, we arrived at the German national team's New Year's Party three hours later with a little under an hour left until midnight.

The Spanish unpunctuality.

Maybe I had already adapted better than I thought I had.

"I feel a little out of place here, like I'm an intruder or something, " Mapi admitted with a little laugh, shyly grabbing my hand as her gaze wandered over all the German players in the room.

"You're not the only one," I grinned, pointing my head towards Ingrid who was engaged in a lively conversation with Laura and Lena Oberdorf.

Mapi's eyes widened at the sight, especially when Laura casually put her arm around the Norwegian's waist, resting her head on the tall midfielder's shoulder. "What the- when did that happen?"

"When you took your little detour to England," I laughed, dragging the defender over to the little group. "Come on, I'll introduce you to Lena. You'll love her!"

"Are you sure?" Mapi replied, throwing me an anxious look. "She seems a little bit scary."

"You know they say that about you, right?" I giggled in disbelief as I was guiding the Spaniard to where I wanted her, Lena already waving at us from afar.

"But I'm not scary," Mapi quietly defended herself while we had already reached the group of three. Trying to prove me wrong, the blonde put on a huge smile, reaching her hand out in Lena's direction. "Hello. I'm Mapi."

Softly shaking the blonde's hand, Lena's eyes slowly wandered over the Spaniard, before her lips formed a big smile. "I know, I'm a big fan actually. I'm Lena, by the way."

Her warm words left Mapi speechless for a second, her triumphing gaze finding mine as if she had just proven to me that other in fact did not find her scary at all. "It's very nice to meet you. And..." the Spaniard cleared her throat as she was trying to find the correct English words. "Thank you. I remember playing against you, you're very good yourself."

Lena's eyes lit up at the compliment, the smile on her face growing even bigger. "Thanks! I will never forget playing at Camp Nou, it was incredible! Although...," the brown-haired midfielder giggled softly. "I gotta say you did scare me a little during the game."

As Mapi's jaw dropped in disbelief at the German's honesty, I couldn't help but burst out laughing, gently nudging the blonde in her side. "See! I told you you're scary!"

"Speaking of scary...," Ingrid intervened, greeting Mapi and me with a quick hug, before excitedly rubbing her hands together. "You won't believe what I heard!"

"Do we even wanna know?" Laura sighed while her facial expression let on that she did in fact want to know. "Where do you even get all your information from?"

"Frida is the source of all my gossip," Ingrid laughed, referring to her international teammate and Arsenal player Frida Maanum. "Okay, listen... Katie McCabe told Frida that her Irish teammate Niamh Murphy is joining Barcelona from Lyon in the winter transfer window!"

While Mapi, Laura, and my jaw dropped in sync, Lena started laughing hysterically, her hand frantically covering her mouth. "You're all screwed! She is indeed the scariest person ever."

"I'm sure she can't be that bad... right?" I wondered hopefully, but just as the words left my mouth, I already wanted to take them back.

"She's the one who hit her opponent so hard that she broke her nose, no?," Mapi quietly contradicted my statement by saying what we were all thinking, the Spaniard's hand unsurely running through her already messy hair.

"No need to whisper, we all saw that live on DAZN two weeks ago," Lena replied still laughing, seemingly happy that she wouldn't have to put up with the former Lyon player on a daily basis anytime soon. "I'm sure her sudden move has something to do with that."

"We could ask Sara about her," Laura suggested, vaguely pointing towards our international teammate Sara Däbritz. "She plays at Lyon after all, I'm sure she knows something about her."

Just as I was about to agree, my gaze fell on Mapi, causing me to eagerly shake my head. "There's one thing I learned ever since I joined Barca," I unsurely intervened to everyone's surprise.

"How to date blonde Spaniards?" Laura suggested with a big grin on her face.

"Or how to get with a psychotic fan who ends up blackmailing you?" Ingrid added another idea.

"Oh, I know! How to kiss your ex!" Mapi offered with a big laugh, apologetically placing her warm hand on my arm.

Lena's eyes questioningly wandered back and forth between the four of us as she scratched her forehead. "What the hell is going on in Barcelona? And you kissed who? "

"It's a long story," I sighed, shooting an angry look at my friends who were still laughing at their jokes. "But that's not what I meant."

"Then what is it, Emi?" Mapi wondered, conciliatorily putting her arm around me, pulling me closer as she kissed my forehead softly.

For an instant, I closed my eyes to just enjoy the moment, before I realized I still owed everyone an answer. I lifted my hand to Mapi's throat, gently stroking over her tattoo with my thumb.

It was the same movement as half a year ago when Mapi walked me to the metro station after our team dinner.

How much had changed since then.

"Looks can be deceiving," I simply shrugged, removing my hand from the Spaniard's throat and softly intertwining my fingers with hers. "If they weren't, I definitely wouldn't be standing here with Mapi and Ingrid, and Sydney wouldn't have been the one to drive us here. So who knows, maybe Niamh will surprise us. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Wise words, even though they're stolen from Mapi's neck," Laura agreed with a small giggle, her gaze shifting to Ingrid. The former Frankfurt player knew that without all the chaotic events of the past few months, she would have never found comfort in Ingrid which eventually lead to where they were now.

Whatever that was, anyway. It was not something they had talked about yet, but the blonde German gladly postponed this problem to the next year.

"Have you guys been to the rooftop?" Ingrid wanted to know from Mapi and me, thereby changing the subject away from our new signing and her apparent anger issues.

"Oh, there's a rooftop? I wanna go," Mapi pleaded to me, using her well-known puppy eyes to win me over immediately.

"Yes, I'll show you in a minute," I smiled at the defender, getting lost in her eyes for an instant before turning back to my friends. "Anyone wanna join us?"

"I think we'll follow you in a few minutes for the fireworks," Lena announced, glaring at her dark apple watch. "Only 25 minutes until midnight."

"Okay, see you later," I nodded, grabbing Mapi's hand to drag the blonde Spaniard out of the designated party room to the elevator, pressing the small 20 once we had entered.

"You were right, Lena isn't too scary," the Spaniard suddenly said, her hand still firmly holding mine as if we both weren't planning on letting go anytime soon. "But neither am I!"

"It's your silly neck tattoo," I laughed, my free hand wandering up to the inked skin before resting on her neck.

With a smile growing on her face, Mapi took a step towards me, her body pressing against mine as her left fingers firmly grabbed my waist.

Feeling the cold metal wall against my back, my eyes got lost in the Spaniard's and I realized, it was the first alone time we had ever since she arrived a few hours ago.

"I'm so happy you're here," I whispered almost inaudibly, gently bringing her head closer to mine.

"Me too, princesa," Mapi replied just as quietly, breaking our eye contact as she closed hers, her soft lips crashing onto mine.

A loud ping announced our arrival on the 20th floor of the building, unfortunately interrupting our kiss which we both noted with a big sigh.

I already couldn't wait to go home.

The doors of the elevators slowly opened, exposing the last few stairs leading up to the rooftop. "Is this okay for your knee?" I worried as the stairs were incredibly steep, my gaze falling down to Mapi's knee.

"Yes, don't worry, princesa. The doctor said I can do everything normally again, I just have to be careful with football," the tattooed blonde let me know, her fingers carefully intertwining with mine for better stability anyway.

"How many more weeks until you return?" I wondered, finally opening the door to the rooftop where a bunch of my national teammates was already enjoying the beautiful view over the outskirts of Munich.

"Probably around 5-8," Mapi sighed, walking over to the railing to get a better look at the stunning view. "Wow, this is so beautiful."

"I know right," I giggled slightly, leaning my head on the blonde's shoulder to which her arm found her way to my waist, pulling me even closer to her body.

For a few minutes, the both of us quietly enjoyed not only the view but also each other's company. We had long reached the point where we didn't feel the need to fill any silence that may occur.

"Could you have imagined the two of us standing here a few months ago?" I asked, breaking the silence between us.

"Oh God no," Mapi laughed out loudly, embarrassedly hiding her face with her free hand. "I gotta admit I may have hated you when you first joined us."

"Yeah... Me too," I grinned, gently nudging the blonde in her side. "We were so stupid and childish."

"Especially me," the Spaniard sighed, her cheeks blushing slightly as she remembered all the past occurrences. "I wasn't in a good place when I met you, but you completely changed that. You made Barcelona my home again and gave my life a reason, Emi. I can't thank you enough."

"You don't have to thank me, silly," I interjected, removing my head from her shoulder and using my free hand to gently turn her face towards me. "Seriously, you make me the happiest I've ever been. And somehow, you even make me a better footballer. If anything, I should be the one thanking you."

"I don't make you a better footballer, that's all you, Emi. You're incredible," the Zaragoza native grinned brightly, gently leaning her forehead against mine.

"This kinda reminds me of the night you found me crying on your balcony," I suddenly remembered, embarrassedly closing my eyes as I thought back to last summer.

"How could I ever forget that," Mapi giggled, her forehead still pressed against mine. "I really wanted to kiss you that night, but I blamed it on the alcohol. Worked well until we went to the beach the following day and I wanted to kiss you again."

"Seriously?" I wondered, not having expected that the defender reciprocated my feelings that early on.

"For sure," Mapi nodded, the grin on her face growing bigger. "But I never thought it could turn into something this serious. Not until your birthday party, anyway. I think that's when I realized you meant more to me than just a simple situationship."

"And yet you wanted to keep it a secret," I teased her, noticing that the rooftop was becoming more and more crowded, indicating that it was probably incredibly close to midnight.

"That was so stupid of me," Mapi admitted ashamedly, her hand around my waist trying to press me closer to her. "I was so scared it could influence the team negatively again as it had with Ana."

"I know, baby. Don't worry about it," I tried to settle her again, my lips coming dangerously close to hers. "It's good that you changed your mind though because I can't wait to start 2025 with you. And hopefully, many more years to come."

"I- " Mapi was interrupted by my international teammates loudly starting to count down to midnight.

"10 seconds until midnight," I smiled at the blonde defender. "I love you so much, Mapi."

"I love you even more, Emi," the Spaniard replied softly, both of her hands now laid around my waist as my teammates reached the 3 seconds mark until midnight.

Standing on my tiptoes to prepare myself for the long-anticipated New Year's kiss, I was about to close my eyes as suddenly fireworks around us started to explode, lighting up the entire sky. As my lips got closer to Mapi's, the light of the fireworks allowed me to catch another glimpse of her neck tattoo.

Looks can be deceiving.

THE END.