Work Text:
The beginning.
Looking at the sheet of paper she was handed and saw the name of her roommate Ali Krieger was the name printed next to hers. She recognised the name, maybe it was HAO or Tobin or another friend that mentioned her, but when they did all they said was good things. Ashlyn smiled to herself, maybe they would get along.
Ali hadn't arrived by dinner, or by that night. Ashlyn heard that she was flying in from Germany so that's why she was late to camp. That's when everything clicked in Ashlyns head, HAO did talk about her, the girl who graduated from Penn State and went overseas to play. Ashlyn had seen a photo of her, it was once again HAO who showed her and by God was she beautiful, everything about her was amazing. Ashlyn was warned though, this girl was straight.
Ashlyn wakes to a soft snore the next morning, at first she panicked having thinking she slept with someone on her first night in the camp but soon realised the sound was coming from the other bed in the room. Ali must have arrived during the night. Noticing the time on the clock Ashlyn realised that both her and Ali would be late for breakfast and their first official meeting of the camp.
Ashlyn shook the girls shoulder trying to wake her up "Ali" she whispers, trying to wake the girl in the nicest way possible "Ali we are going to be late, you need to get up" she tries again shaking the brunette a bit harder this time, which resulted in Ali turning and mumbling something under her breath "Ali we have like twenty minutes until breakfast and the meeting, you need to get up" once again Ali mumbled and attempted to push Ashlyn away.
"leave...me..alone...tired" The keeper couldn't help but let a small laugh escape her lips
"I know you're tired but Pia isn't going to be happy if we miss the first meeting" Ali's response was a potter mumble she does that a lot Ashlyn thinks and even though she didn't understand all that Ali said she is sure she heard the words "fuck" and "Pia" in the sentence.
To say Ashlyn is panicking is an understatement, it's her first camp and first meeting and she is going to be late of she doesn't get her roommate up. Sure she could leave the brunette in bed and go to the meeting and let Ali get in trouble but Ashlyn isn't like that. Ashlyn decides that the only way to get Ali up is to use what she loves, water.
They make it to the meeting in time, with 2 minutes to spare. Ashlyn is looking fine while Ali's hair is soaking wet and she is killing the keeper with her eyes right now. The two go their separate ways Ashly sits with Tobin, an old friend from college while Ali goes to HAO who is trying not to laugh at the sight of her
"don't you dare" Ali warns, her eyes narrowing at the midfielder "I know I look like a mess, no need to remind me"
"what exactly happened?" HAO asks after she controls her laughter
"my roommate decides to wake me up by pouring water over me, look at me HAO I'm a mess!" Ali exclaims pointing to her head "who even is she anyway?" She asks her friend while scanning the room, her eyes landing on the blonde keeper
"that's Ashlyn Harris, remember that keeper from UNC who was like amazing everyone thought she would be the next big thing?" Ali nods her head her eyes still on the keeper who is laughing and joking around with some of the other girls "that's her, she finally got her call-up, this is her first one so that's why she got you up like that, wanted to make a good impression" HAO watches a small smile brea out on Ali's face and follows her line of sight to see the brunette staring at Ashkyn who is having an arm wrestle with Abby Wambach, and somehow winning.
They have their first proper conversation that night, it's after dinner and most of the members have retreated to their own rooms ready to chill with their roommates. Ali walks in to the room to find Ashlyn looking out of their room window and takes the time to study her. It's a few minutes until either of them speak, their room so quiet that yiu can hear the shouting from down the hall
"I'm sorry about this morning" Ashlyn starts sitting in her bed across from Ali looking anywhere but the girl "it's my first time here, I wanted to make a good impression" Ali nods her head and smiles at the sight of the keeper trying to apologise to her as if she had done something terrible
"it's ok, you are forgiven just next time pull my covers off me or something no drowning" Ashlyn smiles, her dimple visible, and looks up to meet Ali's eyes and the defenders breath catches in her throat.
The middle.
Ashlyn loves Ali. Well She isn't one hundred percent certain yet but she's close. Like really close.
"wait, what do you mean you think you love Ali?" Ashlyn flinches at the noises of her best friend shouting through her laptop screen at her after she confessed her, we'll sort of, love for Ali.
"I said what I said" Ashlyn replies as if she didn't just tell her best friend that she is in love with her other best friend. Ashlyn watches as Whitney raises her eyebrow and shake her head
"you do know Ali is like completely straight, like she has a boyfriend straight, don't you?" Whitney questions and Ashlyn rolls her eyes and nods her head "why Ali though, what makes you think you love her?" Ashlyn doesn't know how to answer this, she loves a lot of things about Ali, like a whole lot of things. For one she loves Ali's laugh, Ashlyn can't get enough of it and when Ali smiles and her nose crinkles it makes Ashlyns heart go wild. She loves how they can talk for hours, about anything and everything and not find themselves stuck in a silence where no-one knows what to say. "Hello Ashlyn are you there?" Ashlyn looks at Whitney through the screen who has a smirk plastered on her face.
"what?" Ashlyn asks confused as to why her best friend is looking at her like that
"you really are in love with her, I'm shocked it took you this long to realise that you do"
"what do you mean?" This time it is Whitney who rolls her eyes, completely done with her friends stupidity
"think of the things you have done for each other, you moved to Germany to play with her Ashlyn for Gods sake! And now both of you play with the spirit and live together in that little cosy apartment! You guys are basically dating without the whole kissing and sex part of it" Ashlyns jaw drops taking in everything that her best friend just said to her, she must have been sitting there a while because Whitney is shouting on her again "stop going off in to la la land, dreaming about Ali, we are talking here"
"sorry I'm just shocked, you are right"
"I'm always right Ash" Ashlyn was about to reply with a smart remark but she heard Ali's car pull up outside
"we can continue this talk later, Ali's just pulled up I'll see you at camp next week yeah?"
"Yeah, Canada here we come!" Ashlyn smlies at her friends excitement
"love youWhit"
"love you too Ash, see you soon" Ashlyn walks outside to greet Ali but she finds her kissing her boyfriend leaning against Ashlyns jeep. Her heart breaks a little.
The US had done it, they had won the World Cup after 16 years they had finally brought the cup home. Ashlyn was standing in front of the mirror in her hotel room, the team were going out celebrating their World Cup win. It was a party for everyone including James Ashlyn thought, Ali's boyfriend would be there so Ashlyn had to do something tonight get laid Ashlyn smiled at the thought of getting someone even if it was just for a night, she needed it.
There was a knock at her door taking the blonde out of her thought, grabbing her jacket and keys Ashlyn made her way over to the door and opened it to find Ali waiting with no James?
"where's James?" Ashlyn asks, sure she didn't like the guy but Ashlyn still cared for the man she had to, he was Ali's boyfriend after all
"he went home, his father is unwell" Ashlyn nods and the girls fall into an awkward silence, it had been happening a lot the conversations they had could never flow like they did before, it was like they were pulling away from each other.
They get to the bar with the team and finally they party. Everyone was needing it, sure they had won the World Cup but the girls needed time to just get drunk and relax with friends. They had been there for a good few hours when Ali asks Ashlyn to take her home and Ashlyn does. They both stumble out of the bar both a little tipsy and make the short walk back to the hotel their conversation once again flowing freely.
Ashlyn walks Ali to her door and they both make jokes about Ashlyns long trek back to her room even though it is two rooms down. Ashlyn has her arms around Ali's waist while Ali's arms are wrapped around Ashlyns waist her head lying on Ashlyn shoulder
"we did it Ash, we won the World Cup" Ali whispers
"we did princess" Ali pulls her head up off of Ashlyns shoulder and looks at the taller woman "what are you doing?" Ali smiles and stand up on her toes and pulls the keeper in for a kiss.
When they break apart Ashlyn is looking at Ali in confusion "why did yiu do that?" She asks her voice soft, almost a whisper
"I need you Ashlyn, like I really need you"
"Alex you have a boyfriend, we can't" Ashlyn protests not wanting to have a drunk hookup with the girl she is, one hundred percent, in love with
" Ash please, just us tonight and that's it" Ali pleads holding the blondes hands and watches her as she thinks and finally nods her head "good now come on stud, let's celebrate"
Ashlyn is woken by the sound of someone crying, she soon realises that the person who is crying is Ali. Ashlyn shoots up in bed and looks around and sees Ali sitting on the edge of the bed trying to muffle her sobs. Ashlyn reaches out to the older woman but is shocked and hurt when Ali flinches away from her touch
"Alex?" Ashlyn questions in a quiet voice, afraid that if she talks to loud it will scare Ali
"we made a mistake Ash, I made a mistake! Im happy with James and then I go and do this with my best friend! How could I be so heartless?" Ash goes to take the defender in her arms but is pushed away "don't Ash, I can't look at you or myself right now."
They sit in silence for a while before Ashlyn breaks it, deciding that she has had enough of hiding "I love you" Ashlyn states standing up and looking at the brunette who is staring at her with wide eyes and an opened mouth "I'm in love with everything about you Alex, and I needed you to know that after everything that's happened I just..I wanted you to know" Ashlyn looks at Ali who has fresh tears making their way down her cheeks
"I need space Ashlyn" she finally says and Ashkyn nods picking up her jacket and shoes as she leaves the hotel room without a word not knowing if she could trust her voice.
The end.
Ashlyn still loves Ali. She always will.
When Ali asked for space Ashlyn done everything she could to give her what she wished for. Even if it meant keeping her distance. The still hadn't talked when Ashlyn was approached about a new NWSL team starting up in her home state and she knew straight away that she had to go, that she wanted to go. She talked it over with her family, Whitney and Alex Morgan who was also going to Orlando. Out of all of the, Whitney was the only one that knew about what happened that night.
It was announced that Ashlyn would be traded to Orlando from the spirit for the new season. Ali and Ashlyn still hadn't talked, and it was tearing Ashlyn apart.
It was Ashlyns last day in Washington when she got the message from Ali to meet her at the coffee shop just down the street from them.
With sweaty hands and a racing heart Ashlyn walked into the shop. Ali was sitting in a booth near the back two coffees on the table, she had already got Ashlyns. Ashlyn sat and they both let out a small "hi" and sat in the awkward silence that Ashlyn hates with a passion, it makes her think back to the good times when they first became friends, before everything became so complicated
"thank you..for giving me space" Ashlyn turns her attention away from the small French bulldog outside of the shop and back to Ali, who is now looking at the blonde
"it was the least I could do, you know...after everything that happened" Ali nods and once again they were sitting in that silence. This time Ashlyn focuses her attention on a young couple who are sitting with their child, a young girl, who looks about a year old
"she's cute" Ali states and Ashlyn looks over to see the defender watching the young family as well a small smile on her lips and Ashlyn wants to tell her how she wishes that family was the two of them with their kids, but Ashkyn stops herself, no something stops Ashlyn.
It's a diamond, on Ali's finger. A big beautiful rock on Ali's ring finger, amd Ashlyn can't look away.
Ali senses Ashlyns stare and looks down to see the keeper starin pg at her hand
"James proposed two days ago" Ali starts watching Ashlyns face for a reaction "we are getting married next year" Ali watches as the blonde sitting in front of her closes her eyes and clenches her jaw
"I'm happy for you two" Ashlyn lets out and Ali knows it's a lie
"you're not" Ashlyn looks at Ali shock displayed on her features "of course I'm happy for the two of you Al but.." Ashlyn trails off not knowing where to go next
"but you still love me" Ashlyn nods and looks out the window again clenching her jaw hard, she can't cry, not now
"I love you Ash, but only as a friend. I love James though and I need you to accept that" Ashlyn nods but still does t look at Ali instead she still keeps her attention outside "I told James, and he understood we were both drunk and needed to blow off some steam, he isn't upset with you" Ali tries, hoping reassuring Ashlyn would get her to talk but she sees the tears in Ashlyns eyes, Ali knew she screwed up.
The silence filled the table again but this time Ashlyn didn't mind it stopped them from talking about wedding plans and for that she was glad. Ali on the other hand hated it, she could see the other girl was trying not to cry and she had to see her smile, she needed to see the blondes smile
"remover when we first me and you poured water over me to wake me up because we were late?" Ali asks and Ashlyn can't help but smile and laugh thinking back to the girls first meeting and just like that they finally start to talk.
Its two hours later when Ashlyn leaves the coffee shop and begins walking back to her old home, ready to move her last boxes to her jeep so she can move to her new home. Ashlyn thinks back to when she first realised she loved Ali and smiles, she still loved Ali and she most likely always will.
Ashlyn loved Ali enough to let her go.