Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Things have always come easily to her. She didn’t do difficult.
She played the sports she loved and was naturally talented for, so much so that it was almost effortless for her to be better than anybody else on the field, boy or a girl. And she was easy to get along with. Maybe because she was second youngest in the family of four kids, or maybe it was that she really didn’t care much about things to get into it with other people. Maybe it was both. She had that easy going nature that people liked, and even though she was perceived as weird at times, she didn’t really care. All that mattered to her was that she was allowed to do things she liked, and to do them in her own way, and she never asked for permission for either.
She always thought that she was blessed with a gift - to be great at something she loved the most, and that she was fortunate enough to meet the people along the way who happen to like her quirky nature. It never occurred to her that it was a quality she developed, her ability to make anybody like her. Because everything came easily for her. And she was spoiled by it of course. And she didn’t know it of course. She never fully realized how rare it is to get anything you want almost without trying.
When she first realized she liked girls, she was 12 years old. She told her mother as much first chance she got, cause she always did whatever she wanted and she never pretended to feel things she’s not feeling or vice versa. So when her mom tried to tell her that she might be confused, and that those kinds of feelings will pass when she gets a bit older, she just shrugged and said “No they won’t.” She was right of course, and she just behaved like it was the most natural thing in the world, she figured if she’s feeling it, than it must be natural, and she never even considered other peoples’ opinion about it. It was her business who she liked, and she never cared about other peoples’ preferences. So her parents were ok with it, mostly because she didn’t give them any choice in the matter.
Her parents knew she would be their wild child since she was old enough to speak, and as much as her dad was scared for her, and tried to make her do things the regular way, you could say, her mother was charmed by it. She loved all of her kids of course, but she was charmed by Tobin, in a way that made her want to understand her second to last, strange wild child. So she did just that. Every time her father tried to reason with her, to tell her she has to wear shin guards if she doesn’t want to get hurt, that she has to wear shoes when she’s not in their house, that she stop going to school on her skateboard, her mother would just tell him to leave her be. And so he did. She was in her early teen years and she had the freedom to be whatever she wanted to be. Her mother had known that her kid was not a troublemaker, so all through high school she had a free reign over her own activities. When she decided to not play on her varsity soccer team her senior year, instead opting to train with boys team, nobody even paid attention. She has already committed to University of North Carolina, her dream school since she was 9.
So maybe saying everything came easy for her is even the understatement.
Charming girls was easier than charming her mom, if that was even possible. Getting into girls pants was a child’s play for her. Not that girls really threw themselves at her, but there was enough of them to last her 4 years of college. She wasn’t smug about it, not publicly anyway, though she has pat herself on the back a few times. She never really fell in love though; she never pined for someone, never felt what all those novels were all about, so she figured she was lucky in that sense too.
All of that changed when she met Christen Press.
Tobin was part of Senior USWNT since she was a teenager, and she never once had a crush on her teammate or anything similar to that. She was professional about soccer, and she was friendly with all of her teammates, so in her mind there was no place for romance there.
And she had a disciplined mind, or so she heard her father describe her a few times.
So when her mind started acting out about Christen Press she tried to discipline it. She avoided the girl like the plague, she never made an eye contact with her, and she behaved in such way that for the first time in her life somebody felt unwanted in her company. But she needed to protect herself, so she had to be selfish. At least that’s what she was telling herself every time she saw confusion and hurt on Christens face.
Because everybody knew her as easy going and easy to get along with, it was hurtful for a young newbie striker to wrap her head around what she could’ve possibly done to piss off the most liked person on the team. It couldn’t be about her sitting in her seat on the bus her first today of camp, could it? Even Alex Morgan was nice about it, and she wasn’t famous for being the easiest person to get along with according to all of her NT teammates. It’s like they are rubbing it in, that she is apparently the only person on this planet that Tobin Heath doesn’t like. The only thing good about this situation, Christen figures, is that it has to end. She will not be going to the Olympics, so she just has to keep doing what she’s doing for a few more weeks, then she can go back to her girlfriend and to her teammates in Sweden, and she can start forgetting the feeling of always being on the outside looking in, never being a part of a cool crew. Whatever, she doesn’t care.
But it’s just her luck that she is picked as an alternate, so she gets to be awkward for a few more months. Yay.
So she sucked it up, hanged out with Kelley and tried to make a most of the situation in which she was a part of the team, but not really. Story of her life, she thinks.
So on the night the team, minus her of course, wins the gold medal, nobody is more surprised than her when she gets the undivided attention of one and only Tobin Heath. It starts off harmless enough just the smile across the bar they’ve chosen to celebrate in. Then, and she’s not really sure how, but Tobin is behind her, so she’s trapped between the bar and Tobin, middy with some multicolored drinks in her hands, giving her the glass and saying “Drink up.”
She does what she’s told, multiple times actually, and she doesn’t know how, but she’s having a great time with the person who, outside of the pitch, she hasn't exchange more than three sentences. One of them being “Hi, I’m Tobin Heath.”
When Tobin starts getting closer to her, she doesn’t think much of it, mostly cause she’s really drunk. When Tobin puts her hands on her waist, she starts to back away a little, but not completely. Not far enough apparently, cause, Tobin then reaches around her and close her hands around her back, and she says, looking Christen straight in the eyes:
“What, you don’t wanna dance with me?”
And she’s pouting. She’s pouting so adorably, that Christen catches herself thinking how adorable Tobin is, and she’s too drunk to ask herself where that came from. They are already dancing by the time Christen is able to catch up with her own thoughts, and she wanders is it because she’s that drunk or is Tobin Heath actually that smooth. By the end of the second song Tobins hands are all over her, and she’s just then starting to remember that she has a girlfriend. It didn’t even occur to her that Tobin is trying to get into her pants until her hands started roaming all over her ass.
When Tobin kisses her for the first time, it feels so good that she forgets herself for a few seconds. She forgets that she has a girlfriend, she forgets that that’s the same girl who ignored her for months, she forgets that they are in public and that PDA is not something she’s into. But then she jumps from Tobins grasp so suddenly that she even startles herself, let alone Tobin. The look she receives from the girl is almost unreadable to her. It’s not hurt or embarrassment, it almost looks like she’s surprised. And then she turns around and runs before she does something stupid like kiss the middy senseless.
That’s the first time that something didn’t come easily to Tobin Heath.