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Aitana has been in a sour mood all day. Her leg has been hurting for a while and still she had to play almost 80 minutes against Germany even though she told everyone, that she wasn’t feeling well. Her teammates at Barcelona and Spain have been off with her for weeks now but it’s just gotten so much worse since she struggled a bit against Germany and she feels alone and she’s hurt and not for the first time she wishes she had someone that was just hers, no matter how good or bad she plays, no matter what award she wins, no matter how the world sees her.
So when in the evening most her teammates are in the common room, Aitana tries to retreat to her room, tries to wallow in her hurt, but the thought of being caught crying by a teammate is so horrifying to her that she decides she is probably best to join the bonding activities in the common room, even if just to distract herself.
When she gets downstairs, she finds half the team huddled up infant of the TV, watching the England vs China game. For a second she wonders why they are watching an English friendly, but the Lucy shows up on screen and she sees Ona literally cheesing at the TV and she knows.
Aitana decides in that Moment, that watching the English girls play is certainly the best thing she can do in this moment and sits down next to Mariona, Mariona who despite everything, is still one of those, treating her the best, even if she would understand Mariona being bitter.
The game isn’t exactly riveting but it is a fun watch and Aitana feels like they can learn a lot about what England likes to do, when they are playing comfortably.
She’s almost sad when she sees Keira leaving the pitch, because she always likes seeing her friend play but then she hears the little gasp coming from Ona when Lucy puts on the Captains Armband and she can’t help but laugh at her old friend a little. “Captain armband gets you going Ona?” She jokes and is pleasantly surprised when her teammates join in on the teasing instead of hounding her for being mean, like they did a few days ago when she made a joke about something else. Ona blushes and Aitana feels like she can breathe again. Maybe they don’t all hate her, maybe it’s not as bad as she thought it was. A few minutes later it’s Lucy Bronze being subbed off and Aitana quietly wonders who is going to wear the armband now, considering Williamson is still injured and Keri and Lucy are now both on the bench.
And then she sees Alessia Russo, with the armband on.
Now Aitana has always known, that Alessia looked good, it was never something she doubted, but it was also never something she considered as more than that. Never in a million years did she think of Alessia Russo as someone to be attracted to, Russo has always been a rival, one that she competed with regularly. But then suddenly she sees her with the armband on, and all Aitana can think of, is how nice it would be if Alessia Russo would put Aitana down on her knees, made her beg or something. Aitana shakes her head, trying to get the image out of her head. She has no idea how this happened, she’s never been attracted to Williamson with the armband or god forbid Lucy or Keira, she never even thought of Alexia or Irene in that way.
Aitana gets ripped out of her spiral by Alessia scoring. A noise escapes, her, something between a moan and a sigh and to Aitana’s continued misfortune, Ona heard her. “Captain Armband doing it for you?” Ona mocks Aitana’s earlier musings and Aitana can’t help but nod and groan much to the amusement of everyone around her. Mariona takes out her phone, taking a picture of Aitana and Aitana doesn’t even want to know, what she’s going to do with that. Ona pats her on the head and tells her “we’ve all been there Tana, we’ve all been there.” Pina is laughing and seems unable to stop, Cata having to pat her on the back after she chokes on her spit. Aitana would feel bad but she doesn’t, not after everything, not when the image of Alessia Russo in a rainbow captains armband scoring is just on repeat on her mind. Jana is giggling but wisely keeping to herself, Aitana thinks, considering everyone saw her flirt with the Chelsea forward for an entire game. It’s Vicky that pipes up laughing loudly about “Bonrusso being real and Adidas being the greatest prophet of all time which sends half the team in to hysterics and confuses Aitana to no end.
Eventually Alexia comes over from wherever she and Irene have being doing Gond knows what captains like to do in their spare time.
She sees Aitana, red as a tomato, but seemingly happy, in the middle of all them laughing girls and for a second she feels relieved, she’s been worrying about Aitana, but it seems she’s okay. “What is going on here?” She asks teasingly. She would have never expected Vicky to tell her that Aitana “wants to be fucked by the English captain” (Vicky’s words, not hers) considering Keira Walsh, their friend and ex-teammate is the captain today but Aitana is Turing even redder, hiding her head in her hands and Alexia feels it must be true then. “Huh? Never thought I’d hear that one but alright, how’d that happen Aita?” Aitana groans and to Alexia’s confusion answers with “She’ just so fierce and determined and with then she scored with the armband, and I have never seen her with the armband before and I just, Ale it’s horrible.” Alexia really doesn’t understand why the armband lead to Aitana developing a crush on their friend but she does try to understand. “Okay but I’m pretty sure Keira has worn the armband before and you never reacted to her that way, what’s changed?” Somehow the team finds that incredibly funny and Alexia feels like she must have missed something. “It’s Alessia she likes, Alessia Russo, not Keira.” Mariona explains then, and suddenly Alexia gets it. Gets why everyone has been teasing Aitana.
She sits down by Aitanas feet and asks “so what are you gonna text her?” At that MAriona grins sheepishly “I might have already told the whole Arsenal squad, I forgot Alessia is actually in that Chat sorry.” “What?” Aitana exclaims Mariona then shows Aitana and by extension Alexia her phone.
In the arsenal group chat she sent a picture of Aitana looking at the screen, Alessia and the armband clearly visible, Aitana’s face pink, her moth slightly open, her eyes shining, and under that she wrote, “guess who has a thing for skipper Lessi” Codi is actually the first one that answered “oh my god yes! These two would be perfect for each other, we have to set them up Mario!” To that Leah Williamson answered with “As much as I love apiece of gossip, chicas you’re in the group chat” she followed that up with “But also loving this, never seen Bonmatí this enamoured!” Aitana who started laughing at Mariona and Codi texting in the gc about Alessia, who is in the gc, is blushing again, trying to hide her head in Ona’s shoulder as Mariona keeps scrolling, a slightly ashamed look on her face but mostly elation. When Alexia sees a message from Beth Mead in there, she knows the England girls must be back in the changing rooms and it’s only a matter of time until Alessia finds out. Mead’s message reads, “imma keep an eye on Alessia when we next watch your games Mariona” and Alexoa laughs at that, as if Alessia would let anyone notice anything after seeing these messages.
And then the Alessia send a text in the group chat. “Honestly Mariona, next time please consider not embarrassing your friend, or outing her to your whole team, so not okay, also can you give me Aitana’s number?” Mariona looks positively ashamed at the first part of the message but by the end of it she’s almost grinning again. In the end it’s Aitana who steals Mariona’s phone and writes Alessia’s number in her own phone. She then gets up, still blushing but seemingly much more composed. “Thanks everyone for the bonding night, imma go to bed now, please don’t tell anyone else about the yea?” And then she leaves.
Back in her room, Aitana carefully crafts a message to Alessia Russo. “Hi, it’s Aitana, I’m sorry about Mariona and Codi, they should have known better” Alessia responds not even a minute later and soon there are many messages exchanged between them.
“Don’t be sorry, Is should apologise for my teammates’ behaviour, you didn’t deserve to be put on the spot like that”
“My teammates have done much worse to me these months, kinda liked for once being teased about something positive I guess”
“Sooooo, I’m something positive?”
“You already know I think you’re hot, don’t need to rub it in:”
“For the record, I think you’re absolutely adorable Aitana.”
Aitana blushes at that. And somehow she finds some courage and bravery in her.
“Vicky (Lopez) told Alexia I wanted you to fuck me” she wants to unsent the text as soon as she sends it but the damage is already done, Alessia had seen it.
“Is Vicky right?”
“Si” Aitana throws her phone on the bed as soon as she send the text but then she hears a ping, and then another and she cautiously goes and picks her phone up again.
“I’m not opposed to that Idea.”
“I have a day off after we play Ghana.”
“I could fly to Spain then.”
Aitana almost melts, how is it that Alessia is just willing to fly to Barcelona for her.
“I would really like that Alessia”
“Okay, in that case, it’s a date.”
Aitana almsot asks Alessia to bring the armband, but then she feels that would be too unhinged.
But then Alessia texts “Want me to bring the armband?”
“Desperately” Aitana answers.
And when she finally falls asleep that night, it’s to images of being on her knees for the English striker, Alessia stood above her, wearing nothing but the Captain’s armband, making Aitana beg, beg to be allowed to touch her, beg to be allowed anything and Aitana wakes up the next morning with a sticky mess between her legs, but she doesn’t mind it at all.
For once she just reaches down in to her pyjamas and conjures up the dream images again.