Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

            “MOE!” Meghan yelled dramatically for her roommate. “Moe, get in here!”

            “WHAT?” Morgan shouted back from somewhere in the house.

            “Get in here!” Meghan yelled again, a little louder and a little higher pitched.

            Morgan ran swiftly up the stairs toward Meghan’s bedroom. It better not be a spider, she thought. Or drama, it better not be drama. Please don’t let it be drama. Or a cockroach. Please don’t be a cockroach. “It better not be something I have to kill!” Morgan said as she opened her teammate’s door.

            “Not a spider,” Meghan assured her. She was sitting at her desk bent intently over her laptop. She barely looked up as Morgan came in.

            “Ok, then what? What could possibly be so urgent? It’s not a cockroach or a mouse or an opossum right?” Morgan asked, pausing in the doorway just in case.

            “Not a live animal or an insect. It’s…” Meghan paused and looked up at Morgan in the doorway. A guilty look crossed her face and she held her breath, deciding the best way to deliver this piece of information.

            “Kling, what? I have other things to do you know,” Morgan stated raising her arms in question.

            “There’s fanfic about us,” Meghan rushed out.

            “What?!? Fanfic? About us? Like you and me us?” Morgan asked loudly, eyes wide.

            “No, no, no!” Meghan replied waving her hands and shaking her head. “Not you and me. Which now that I think about it is equally surprising and relieving and disappointing. No, there’s fanfic about our team, the national team, and there’re ship names and it’s all over Tumblr.”

            “Shut up!” Morgan exclaimed rushing over to Meghan’s desk.

            “I know right?!?” Meghan said, nodding with vindication.

            “Ok, first how’d you find it?” Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow.

            “Um, well, I was on Tumblr and then, you know, I ended up down the rabbit hole,” Meghan replied, trying to gloss over the fact that she’d been down said rabbit hole for the better part on an hour. She finally called in the younger player when she couldn’t keep it to herself anymore. She’d already seen and read way more than she was comfortable with.

            “Yeah right, what did you search?” Morgan asked, sitting down on the corner of Meghan’s bed. Morgan tried to peer around Meghan to see her computer, but Meghan continued to block it mysteriously.

            “Ok, look, so I was on Tumblr and apparently somebody I follow is a fan or whatever and posted a pic of Ali and Ash. It was tagged Krashlyn, which of course we’ve heard of, and that got me to wondering, so I-“ Meghan explained, shrugging lightly.

            “Oh my god, you didn’t!” Morgan said gasping, covering her mouth with her hands.

            Meghan hung her head briefly and nodded, “I did. I clicked on it and ended up deep in the tag. Tumblr loves them. Like loves them, loves them. Like OTP loves them. And that’s when I found the fic. And a master post of all of the other ships people have for our teammates. There’re names Moe, they all have names.”

            “How have we never thought of this before? How many are there? What are the names? I thought it was just Krashlyn! How much fic is there? Did you read some? Oh my god, is it dirty? Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. Yes I do! Tell me!” Morgan rambled.

            Meghan shook her head, “Once we do this, we can’t go back. There’s no going back. We will know this forever. Are you sure?”

            Morgan nodded and then shook her head and then nodded again, “I’m dying. Tell me! Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

            “Ok fine. Krashlyn seems to be the most popular, followed by Talex and O’Solo. And then it gets all kinds of convoluted with Kellex, Presston, Kobin, LeMew, Jolo, O’Press, Harli, and Preath. And that’s just the ones I’ve seen. Apparently we have a fandom. Who knew?” Meghan replied quickly, eager to not be the only person who had to endure this information.

            “Woah! I have no idea who half of those could be. You need to spell this out. And I’m mildly offended that we aren’t in any of these. Are we just not shippable? That sorta makes me sad. In a very twisted way. Ok, so tell me the top three again,” Morgan responded.

            “You know Krashlyn is Ali and Ash. Talex is Tobin and Alex and O’Solo is Hope and KO,” Meghan said, ticking them off on her fingers.

            “Poor Ash and Ali. Do you think they know that the whole internet knows?” Morgan asked. Meghan grimaced and nodded. “Man that’s awkward. Ok, I totally get Tobin and Alex because they are always together, but Hope and Kelley? I don’t know. Hope’s like super married. And Kelley is Kelley. They are like total opposites!”

            “Mmm, I kinda get it,” Meghan admitted. She turned back to her computer for a second, typed something, and then picked up the laptop and set it in front of Morgan. “Exhibit A, there are a bunch of pics of them hugging and standing near each other and Kelley smacking Hope on the butt. I think the draw is that they are so different, but when they are in pictures together, they look happier and cute together. Hope’s actually smiling and maybe people think Kelley brings that out in her.”

            Morgan scrolled through the O’Solo Tumblr tag for a few seconds and then looked up at Meghan, finally processing her words. “You better be careful,” she warned. “Or you will start shipping them. That would be disastrous. Oh my god, you could never look at them. But I get what you are saying, there is potential there I guess.”

            “Yeah, no joke. Shipping teammates would be super awkward. What’s weird is that all the ships revolve around the same like ten people. Apparently KO is super shippable because people ship her with Alex, Tobin, and Christen, as well as with Hope. And Hope is also shipped with JJ and Carli. People also like Syd and Mewis and Christen and Tobin, but the new big one is JJ and Christen. It’s the new cinnamon roll ship,” Meghan informed her teammate.

            Morgan thought for a minute, “Yeah, ok. Is that all of them?”

            “Eh, you know how Tumblr is, sometimes it’s hard to ferret out. That’s all I could find easily. The top three are the easiest to find, but others pop up in fic. So speaking of fic, there’s more,” Meghan replied. She took the computer back from Morgan and clicked a few times before placing the laptop back in front of Morgan.

            Meghan held her breath as Morgan’s eyes scanned the page in front of her. Morgan’s brow furrowed and she asked, “What am I looking at?”

            “This is a fanfic archive called Archive of Our Own. You are looking at the Women’s Soccer Real Person Fic tag. This is where Tumblr led me. Scroll back to the top and see how many entries there are,” Meghan directly.

            Morgan’s eyes widened and she looked up quickly at her friend. “Shut up! A thousand!” she exclaimed. “There are a thousand fics about our team? A thousand?”

            “Ok, to be fair, they aren’t all about national team players. Some are about the McLeod’s and other players in the league. And there’s some with people who have retired, but basically yeah, there are a thousand fics about women’s soccer players,” Meghan responded.

            “Oh wow! How many are we in?” Morgan asked.

            “Dunno, search us,” Meghan replied, sitting down on the bed next to her.

            Morgan smiled and typed her name into the search bar. “Hmm,” she said. “It says I’m in sixteen. Let’s try you.” She typed in Meghan’s name and smirked. “You’re in seven.”

            Meghan scoffed, “Not fair! I’ve been on the team longer!”

            “Yeah, but you are paired with Lori in this one, so there’s that,” Morgan laughed.

            “What? Then I win! I’m in a ship and you’re not! Even if you are in sixteen fics!” Meghan shoved Morgan playfully as she laughed.

            “No way! More is more, even if you have a ship. You want to read it and see if it’s smutty?” Morgan teased devilishly.

            “NO! God no! Don’t do it! Why would you suggest that? What have I ever done to you?” Meghan begged, grabbing Morgan’s arm.

            Morgan laughed again and patted Meghan’s knee. “Just kidding! I would never. I couldn’t look at you the same,” she replied.

            “Thank god. But seriously, what now? Do you think anyone else knows? Do we tell them?” Meghan asked.

            “Maybe someone knows? Ash and Ali know about their ship name. I mean, people plaster it all over their Instagrams, but what are the chances that nobody has ever seen this?’ Morgan asked thoughtfully.

            Meghan thought quietly for a minute before responding, “I mean, we are the most likely to Tumblr, so it makes sense that we came across it, but I’m really not sure that anybody else would. And who else would even know how to find fic or what fic is for that matter? Maybe we should try to keep this to ourselves. I mean, some people might not care or may think it’s funny, but can you imagine Hope finding out?”

            Morgan gave her teammate a pointed look and replied, “Yeah no. We aren’t telling anyone. We’re keeping this to ourselves. No one needs to know.”

            “My thoughts exactly,” Meghan agreed with a nod.

            “Is there anything else you found?” Morgan asked expectantly.

            “What more could there be? Actually, don’t answer that. This is all I found. It seems mostly contained within Tumblr and this archive. Although Krashlyn is all over the place, but I don’t think they know about the fic. They aren’t nerdy enough to know about fic,” Meghan responded. She shuddered at the thought of trying to explain fanfic to Ashlyn Harris. That’d be a nightmare.

            “True story. Okay, our secret then. Thanks for this dude, you owe me one. You just brought me in so you wouldn’t have to carry this burden alone. That’s messed up,” Morgan said sarcastically.

            Meghan smiled at her and apologized, “Sorry! I couldn’t handle the weight of this knowledge. You asked for it though. You made me tell you!”

            “Whatever,” the younger player responded, getting up and moving toward the door. “You did it on purpose, don’t lie.”

            “Maybe, but whatever, I needed to share this with somebody,” Meghan replied smiling. “Hey! Don’t go googling this! It’s a black hole of despair!”

            “Yeah, ok,” Morgan responded over her shoulder, walking out of the room. She smirked as she left, fulling intending to jump down the rabbit hole with Kling.

            “Seriously, don’t do it!” Meghan called after her. “It will only end in heartbreak and feels!”

Chapter Text

            Morgan breathed a sigh of relief as she exited through the bathroom door into her hotel room. Thankfully Kelley had already left for breakfast. It was just her luck that she’d have to room with Kelley, the very person she’d read the most fic about. But of course that was her own fault, Meghan had warned her not to. Morgan knew she was susceptible to falling in love with ships and fic had always been a weakness. She had promised herself she’d just read one little Krashlyn fic to gauge how involved the fandom was. She’d woken up out of a daze the next morning, her fingers inching toward her tablet for more. Since then she’d read just about everything she could get her hands on, excluding the smut of course, because that was crossing some weird and very uncomfortable line. And now she had to see her teammates at breakfast the day before the first victory tour game. Morgan silently cursed her best friend.

            Morgan’s phone vibrated from the bed, On my way to get you for breakfast.

            Morgan shook her head, still annoyed at her luck, and replied, KO’s already gone btw. I can’t believe you got Whit. You suck.

            Morgan put her phone in her pocket as she heard a knock at the door. When she opened it, Meghan responded in person, “I told you not to read it! Yes, I’m very lucky I got Whit. Could have been Lori and that would have been, like, suuuuuuper awkward!”

            Morgan scoffed at her and shook her head. She grabbed her keycard and stared down the defender, “I may never forgive you for this. You know how I can’t resist a good OTP. You better keep your mouth shut at breakfast.”

            Meghan just laughed at her friend as they walked down the hall toward the elevators. Luckily, they made it all the way to the breakfast room without encountering any teammates. They’d hurriedly decided a plan in the elevator, which basically revolved around the both of them “acting natural” and “staying cool.” Morgan wished there could have been just a little more time in between finding the fic and the seeing their teammates again. She trusted herself to stay calm and nonchalant, but she knew that if Kling got too nervous, her face lit up like a Christmas tree. Then there would have to be awkward excuses from Morgan and more cheesy grinning (with apologies later) from Meghan. Morgan knew she just had to keep Meghan away from everyone else for just a little while, until they could get into a game, and leave all this fangirling for teammates behind.

            Morgan shot her friend one last pointed look before entering the room first. Luckily, only half the team had made it to breakfast already, so there were plenty of open seats away from Kelley, Ashlyn, and Ali, who were holding court at the far side of the room. Morgan had cringed when she found out that Kelley was to be her roommate for the next few days. Luckily, Kelley’s flight had been delayed and she didn’t make it to the room until way after dinner. Morgan had fallen asleep by the time Kelley returned from making the rounds.

            Meghan pointed to a group of open seats at the end of a long table. Morgan nodded in agreement and they grabbed their breakfast quickly, to avoid losing the prime seating. They sat down next to each other and Meghan quickly dug into her meal. Morgan sighed and whispered, “Have I told you that I hate you in the last five minutes?”

            “Trouble in paradise girls?” a familiar voice asked a few seats down from their end of the table. Abby lowered the newspaper she was reading and raised an eyebrow at them.

            “Nope,” Meghan glanced up quickly at Abby and then returned to her breakfast.

            Abby smirked and shook her head, returning to her newspaper. She uttered a quiet, “Mmmhmm,” as she turned the page.

            “Leave them alone Abby,” chastised the person who had been seated across from Abby. Meghan and Morgan froze at the familiar and surprisingly high-pitched voice. Hope set her fresh cup of coffee down on the table in front of her and sat down a few seats away from them. Morgan heard Meghan’s sharp intake of breath. They had both thought the seat had been abandoned. Apparently Hope had just gone to get more coffee. This was almost worst case scenario. Hope Solo was sitting at their table and was currently smiling at them. “Good morning ladies,” she said.

            “Good morning Hope,” they replied in unison, as if she was their kindergarten teacher. Neither one looked up as they greeted her.

            “You guys ok?” she asked, mild concern creasing her brow.

            “Mmhm,” Morgan replied as Meghan nodded vigorously. Morgan looked up briefly and met Hope’s gaze. She bit her bottom lip nervously and Hope’s hawk eyes narrowed slightly. Morgan quickly dug into her cereal, thankful when Hope turned back to her coffee and her book. Meghan nudged her in the ribs quickly and Morgan slapped her leg in response, “I swear Kilng, if you start smiling I’m going to drag you out of this hotel and throw you in the river.”

            “Shut up, you are drawing attention to us,” Meghan whispered back.

            “No I’m not, you are. Everybody knows I’m awkward, but you’re acting like… like… like I don’t know what, but it’s weird,” Morgan whispered back.

            “Will you shut up and eat so we can get the hell out of here?” Meghan responded, side eyeing Morgan. Morgan grumbled a response and returned to her meal hurriedly.

            Not long after their exchange, Abby stood and grabbed her newspaper and coffee. “See ya Solo,” Abby said to the keeper.

            “Bye Abby,” Hope replied, not looking up from her book.

            Abby passed by the pair and lightly swatted them on the head with her newspaper. Both looked up at her with matching yelps. Morgan leaned away from her seat to try to swipe at her as she passed. Meghan laughed as Abby jumped out of the way.

            “Ok, spill it,” Hope directed, suddenly sitting in front of them.

            “Ahh!” they both squeaked, simultaneously whipping their heads around to the goalkeeper. Neither knew how Hope had snuck up on them, but they both felt the weight of being cornered by the person they least wanted to talk to about this.

            “Holy crap, you’re scary. I mean you scared me. I mean us, you scared us. I mean-“ Meghan rambled with her hand on her heart. Morgan just stared at Hope fearfully.

            The most intimidating goalkeeper in the world continued to stare them down, leaning across the table expectantly. Morgan looked back and forth between Hope and Meghan nervously. She knew Meghan would crack, it was only a matter of time. She swallowed noisily as Hope raised a slender eyebrow.

            “I can do this all day. It’s better to just get it over with,” Hope informed them.

            “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Meghan responded, raising her hands. Her mouth turned up at the corners and Hope tilted her head at them in that “Really?” gesture that she was so good at.

            “Does she know she’s smiling?” Hope asked Morgan.

            “I dunno,” she replied and turned to Meghan, “Do you know you’re smiling like an idiot?”

            “No I’m not. I mean yes I am. But I’m not smiling for any reason. I mean other than I’m happy to see Hope because it’s been a while, well it hasn’t been that long, but it’s nice to see everybody again, and-“ Meghan rambled, her smile and lack of making sense totally giving away her nervousness.

            “Oh my god shut up,” Morgan directed her under her breath. Meghan immediately closed her mouth and bit her lips.

            Hope laughed, “I’m happy to see you too Kling, but if you’re this flustered, it’s got to be something good. You guys might as well just tell me and then you don’t have to worry about not telling me anymore and we can go about our business.”

            “Hm,” Morgan looked over at Meghan, who was still smiling helplessly. “Quick conference?” she asked her friend. Meghan nodded. The girls turned their backs on Hope and Morgan whispered, “She’s got a point. We’re screwed. We’re never going to keep this a secret. Maybe if we can tell the right people, then everyone will know and we can go back to not obsessing over this.”

            “I’m not obsessing, you’re obsessing,” Meghan whispered back accusingly. Morgan rolled her eyes and shook her head in response. “There’s no way we’re getting out of this. She’s like some ninja master or a secret shark that can smell blood in the water,” Meghan continued.

            “A secret shark? I don’t get it,” Morgan whispered back.

            “Yeah like a shark that can smell secrets in the water instead of blood. A secret shark,” Meghan explained.

            “Oh, gotcha, yeah that makes sense,” Morgan responded with a nod.

            “You guys do know that I can hear you right?” Hope asked with a smirk.

            The pair looked at each other briefly and exchanged a quick nod. They turned simultaneously back toward the older player. Morgan side eyed Meghan, clearly telling Meghan that she was going to have to do the explaining because this was her mess.

            “Ok,” Meghan took a deep breath and asked, “How nerdy are you?”

            Hope was taken aback by the question and leaned back a little with her arms crossed, “Excuse me?”

            Morgan looked at Meghan nervously, not sure about the approach Meghan was taking. There’s no way that Morgan would have asked Hope a personal question, no matter how mundane. She hoped Meghan knew what she was doing before they ended up on the receiving end of a strongly clenched jaw. Meghan thought calmly about her response and said, “Ok look, this is going to be a very weird conversation, so I’m warning you right now, if you want to get out, now’s the time. In order for us to tell you about… stuff, then there are some pieces of background information we need to make sure you have.”

            “And you need to know how nerdy I am?” Hope asked. They nodded simultaneously. “I really don’t know how to answer that,” she told them.

            “Ok, so you read a lot right? Ever read, like, Harry Potter or the Hunger Games or watch the movies even?” Meghan asked.

            “Yeah, no, I don’t really do YA,” Hope replied, daring them to challenge her on that point.

            Morgan filed that response for later because Hope had said “YA” and while that’s a popular genre, most people don’t refer to it as “YA” unless they read YA. Apparently the nerdiness of Hope Solo was something she’d been wondering about because she suddenly remembered something she’d read on the plane yesterday. She snapped her fingers at the memory and asked, “Don’t you like Star Wars?”

            Hope colored slightly and responded with a reserved, “Yeah, how’d you know?”

            “I, um, I read your blog. On the plane yesterday, I read it on the plane. And you mentioned it,” Morgan said, suddenly embarrassed.

            “Aw, you read my blog?” Hope said, unexpectedly touched.

            “Yeah, you know, I wanted to be supportive. Thanks for what you said. It meant a lot,” Morgan replied shyly.

            “Hey, I meant every world. Thanks for reading it, I’m touched,” Hope said with a smile, putting her hand to her heart.

            “Hey I read it too!” Meghan interjected, slightly annoyed.

            Hope laughed and smiled at the defender, “Thank you too Kling. I appreciate the support.”

            “You’re welcome,” they replied together.

            “So what does this have to do with me watching Star Wars?” Hope asked, confusion lining her words.

            “Nothing really, but we can work with that,” Meghan replied. She pursed her lips in thought for a second and then asked, “So you know how really big fans of something like get together on the internet and talk about it and dress up like characters and stuff?” Hope nodded and Meghan continued, “Ok, so a group of fans like that is called a fandom.”

            “Okaaaaaay,” Hope replied to show Meghan she was following. Her eyebrows were creased and her eyes were silently searching for answers that were just out of reach.

            “Great, so you know how in Episode Four, Leia and Han kinda have like a thing going and they’re all flirty and you’re just waiting for them to get together?” Meghan asked. Hope responded again with a few nods and Morgan relaxed a little, knowing that Meghan was actually explaining this very succinctly. “Well the people in the fandom who are invested in the relationship between two characters and want to see them together are called shippers. They want to see those characters in a relation-‘ship’ so they support them through the sharing of artwork and videos and stories they write called fanfiction.”

            “Ok, I’ve heard of fanfiction,” Hope replied, nodding again. “This is a really weird conversation, by the way. You were right.”

            “Oh just you wait,” Morgan muttered. Meghan and Hope both shot her a look. Meghan’s out of warning and Hope’s out of confusion. She quickly looked around to see if anyone else noticed the trio talking. Most of the team was now at breakfast, but no one seemed to be paying their table any attention.

            “Yeah, don’t forget I warned you. So what do you know about fanfiction?” Meghan asked.

            “I don’t know. I’ve heard of it. I guess people write stories about characters in tv shows and stuff and then they put it on the internet. And some of it’s pornographic right?” Hope responded.

            Morgan almost snorted her orange juice out of her nose. She rushed to wipe off her chin. Meghan looked almost offended at the insinuation. Hope shrugged and Meghan replied, “Ok, yeah it is, but they call it smut, not porn. Most people don’t think of it as porn, but yes, there’s plenty of sex in it. But that’s beside the point. They point is, within a fandom there are ships, sharing stuff on fandom sites like Tumblr, and fanfiction.”

            “Ok, so people on the internet like stuff. What’s your point?” Hope asked impatiently.

            Morgan and Meghan shared a look. Neither could keep the knowing smirks off of their faces. Meghan had hoped that Hope would have put it together by now, but she was thinking that the big reveal was going to be more fun this way. She stole another look at Morgan and the younger girl nodded, silent laughter in her eyes. Meghan turned back to Hope with a smile she couldn’t contain and simply stated, “The US national women’s soccer team has a fandom.”

            Hope squinted her eyes at them, tilting her head slightly, still confused and restated Meghan’s words, “The US national women’s soccer team has a-“ Hope’s eyes lit up in realization and she let out a loud and rather un-Hopelike, “OH MY GOD!” Hope immediately covered her mouth in surprise as the younger girls loudly shushed her.

            The outburst had spun quite a few heads, since Hope wasn’t known for yelling “OH MY GOD!” without good reason. Hope froze and closed her eyes, trying to contain the laugh that her crinkled eyes were betraying. She leaned forward on the table and shook with silent laughter.

            Meghan and Morgan looked at each other mortified. Neither had expected this response from Hope and worried that it would attract too much attention. “Oh my god, keep it down!” Meghan whispered at her urgently.

            “I’m sorry, I‘m sorry!” Hope replied, still laughing silently. She took a few deep breaths and dabbed at the tears in her eyes. When she finally had it together enough, she asked, “So you’re saying that people on the internet are obsessed with our team and the players on our team hooking up?”

            “Well when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound so great, but yeah. People on the internet love our team. To the point of talking about us and sharing pictures of us and…” Meghan paused, letting the last one sink in.

            “And writing fanfiction about us? People do that? They write about actual real life people?” Hope inquired thoughtfully.

            “Yeah, there’s fanfiction about people on our team. On the internet there’s fanfiction about everything. Real people and fake people and all kinds of other stuff,” Meghan informed her.

            “Hmmmm, interesting. So who does the internet want to hook up?” Hope asked, crossing her arms and leaning back.

            “Um,” Meghan paused, “It’s mostly Ali and Ash. The internet calls them Krashlyn”

            “Yeah well that makes sense. They suck at hiding their relationship. Why does the internet call them Krashlyn?” Hope said, genuinely interested.

            “Well, it’s their ship name. So on the internet people smash together the names of the people they ship and that name is their ship name. Most people talk about a ship by their ship name. So Krashlyn is a mix of Krieger and Ashlyn,” Meghan explained.

            “And O’Solo is Kelley and me,” Hope replied nodding. “I always wondered where that came from.”

            This caught them off guard. They shared a quick look, trying to decide how much to share about O’Solo to the Solo half of the ship. Nervously Meghan said, “Um, yeah. You and Kell are O’Solo. It’s a, um, it’s a pretty popular ship.”

            “Is it? Is there fanfiction?” Hope asked pointedly.

            Both Morgan and Meghan averted their eyes. Meghan responded with a simple, “Mmhm.”

            “And you’ve read some haven’t you?” Hope inquired with a smirk.

            Both players nodded and replied with an additional, “Mmhm.”

            Hope laughed, “And that’s why you are embarrassed and didn’t want to talk to me. It’s because you’ve read fanfiction about me and Kelley getting it on.”

            The girls nodded again and quietly shared a third, “Mmhm.” Morgan turned to look at Meghan and was glad to see that her cheeks were as pink as her own.

            “Was it dirty?’ Hope asked with a teasing laugh.

            “Oh my god, no, stop!” Meghan hissed out, while Morgan simultaneously whispered, “Oh god, it was just the one.”

            “Wait, what?” Meghan quickly asked Morgan as she processed the younger girl’s words. Morgan covered her eyes and shook her head in embarrassment.

            Hope just laughed at the two and said, “Jesus this is funny. Thanks guys, I needed that.”

            “You’re not going to tell anybody are you?” Morgan asked, pulling her hands away from her face.

            “Oh you mean like Kell? The O to my Solo? Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll see. Wouldn’t you rather it be me than you that spread the word?” Hope teased with a huge smile that rivaled Meghan’s.

            “Yes!” Morgan hissed, while Meghan half shouted, “No!”

            Hope laughed again and shook her head. Meghan shot Morgan a warning look and said, “Yes, it would be easier not to have to tell everybody because we obviously can’t contain ourselves, but when this comes back to us as the ones who found it, it’ll be so embarrassing.”

            “Us? US? You did this Klingenberg and then you sucked me in. I will shout it from the rooftops if I have to!” Morgan poked a finger in her friend’s direction.

            Hope smiled at them and then shook her head. “Well this has been fun ladies. I will let you work out how to deal with this. We need to get on the bus in twenty,” she told them standing up. The younger players watched her pack up her things, both marveling in the surrealness of the conversation. “Good luck with this kids!” Hope said as she pushed in her chair.

            “Thanks,” they grumbled as the keeper walked away. The pair remained silent as they watched the Krashlyn table get up to leave too. Kelley called out to Hope and jogged up to meet her. Meghan and Morgan watched intently as they hugged in greeting. Hope left her arm around the shorter Kelley’s shoulders as they headed out the door. Just before they left from view, Hope turned in their direction and shot them a mischievous wink.

            Morgan and Meghan looked at each other with the same wondering expression. “You don’t think…” Morgan trailed off.

            “Nah. Couldn’t be, right? She was just screwing with us,” Meghan assured her, unconvincingly.

            “Right? I can’t believe we couldn’t make it more than five minutes into breakfast,” Morgan sighed.

            “Ugh, god I know. And of course it was Hope. She sees literally everything,” Meghan agreed.

            “Yeah. Oh well. You know we are going to end up having to tell the whole team right?” Morgan said.

            “I hope not, that was excruciating. She took it well though. I’m going to catch so much crap for this,” Meghan sighed, dejectedly.

            “Yeah you are. Yeah we are. God, this sucks. Do you think she’ll try to find it?” Morgan asked leaning back in her chair.

            “Probably not. She doesn’t seem like the fanfiction type, but I don’t know. She knew what it was and she was weird about the whole nerdy thing,” Meghan mused.

            “You don’t think she’s a secret nerd do you?” Morgan asked. Something in Hope’s reaction to the nerdiness question had made her wonder what she didn’t know about the notoriously private keeper.

            “No, probably not. The chances of her being a secret nerd are about as high as the chances that she and Kelley really are O’Soloing it,” Meghan replied with a smirk.

            Morgan laughed, “Yeah ok, you’re probably right. Let’s go, I need to grab my bag before we get on the bus.”

Chapter Text

            Morgan sighed as she plopped down on her bed after dinner. We made it. Thank god. We made it through dinner, she thought, closing her eyes in exhaustion. Practice had been grueling. Not just because it was as hot as a monkey’s armpit, but because Meghan kept shooting her exaggerated looks every time she was standing by one of the “fickies,” as they’d started calling them. And Hope had been unbearable. Her teasing smirk was omnipresent and Morgan couldn’t look in her direction without Hope breaking into fits of barely concealed laughter. Who knew Hope Solo could be such a pain in the ass? Morgan thought as she silently cursed the keeper.

            Morgan’s phone buzzed near her head and she groaned as she reached for it. Movie night is in my room. Wanna hang out in yours? Meghan inquired.

            Yup, Morgan texted back, unable to bring herself to type more. She closed her eyes.

            On my way. Can’t believe we made it through the rest of the day, Meghan replied.

            Yup, Morgan responded again. All she wanted was a quiet night. Maybe Meghan would see how exhausted she was and then they wouldn’t have to discuss a new plan. They’d been lucky today in some ways. Hope had taken it really well. Maybe nothing fazed her anymore or maybe she didn’t care what people wrote about her on the internet after everything she’s been through.

            I swear to god if Hope smirks at me one more time I may lose it. She was killing me. Although it could be worse, Meghan continued. Morgan sighed loudly. She wished for just five minutes of peace. Thank god Kelley was in the shower. If not she’d probably be talking Morgan’s ear off.

            Yup, Morgan text back again. A few seconds later, she heard a knock at the door. She slowly rolled over and shuffled toward the door. She stifled a yawn as she opened it for Meghan.

            Meghan entered and asked, “Dude are you ok? What’s with all the ‘yups’?”

            “Yup, I’m good,” a yawn interrupting Morgan’s smile.

            “Did you stay up reading fic again? Was it Krashlyn this time? You’re not mopey so it wasn’t angsty O’Solo. It was some Krashlyn fluff wasn’t it? God I told you not to read it! Now you’re going to be staring at Ash and Ali all shippy-eyed and we’re going to catch more crap from Hope and- what?“ Meghan rambled with her hands on her hips, her back to the bathroom door. Mid-rant, Morgan heard the shower stop and waved frantically for Meghan to shut up. She pointed aggressively at the bathroom door while shushing the defender.

            “What?” Meghan held out her hands, upset at being interrupted mid-rant.

            “Shut up! Kelley is in the bathroom!” Morgan whispered through her gritted teeth. Meghan’s eyes widened and her hands flew to cover her mouth. She turned just in time to see Kelley emerge, freshly showered, with a devilish smile.

            “Not anymore!” she said wigging her eyebrows. “Hey, I heard a funny story today from my buddy Solo. You guys sure were making a racket this morning, so I asked her what that was all about and she said I needed to ask you. She did mention that it was some funny shit and that not many people knew about it. So I figured I’d hang around until Klingy showed up and then make you guys tell me. You dorks walked right into my trap!”

            Morgan groaned and sprawled out on the bed. Meghan stood frozen in place for a second, staring at Kelley as if she was speaking Klingon and then shook her yeah. “Stupid Hope. I swear to god,” she grumbled as she sat next to Morgan on the bed.

            “Ok nerds. Cough it up. You know you can’t keep anything from old KO. What have you kiddies been getting into?” Kelley teased, sitting on the bed opposite the duo.

            “Dude, I’m two days older than you, shut up!” Meghan argued.

            “Whatever, she’s not. Plus I’m much more mature, obviously,” Kelley countered.

            Morgan snorted from the bed. Meghan rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically, “Yeah, ok!”

            “So you guys found something on the internet didn’t you? Something about our team,” Kelley prompted.

            “What? How?” Meghan asked clearly uneasy about how much Kelley knew. She wondered what exactly Hope had said to her shipmate. What if Kelley knew everything and was just screwing with them?

            “Note to yourself, Hope Yolo has a hella big mouth. But she didn’t tell me much. Just that there’s some interesting things on the internet,” Kelley responded.

            “Oh for crying out loud,” Meghan lamented.

            “I’m totally throwing you in the river Kling! Tomorrow! After a nap!” Morgan muttered, eyes closed.

            “What’s wrong with her?” Kelley asked, easily distracted.

            “Oh you’ll find out! She’s bad at listening to me,” Meghan told her. Morgan swatted at her in defiance.

            “Any time this century dude,” Kelley prompted.

            “Ok, fine! Fine! Do you have a Tumblr?” Meghan relented.

            “No,” Kelley informed her.

            “You don’t have a Tumblr? Do you know what it is?” Meghan asked, mildly surprised.

            “No, no Tumblr. It’s like Pinterest right? But for nerds?” Kelley replied.

            “Yeah, well no, Pinterest is Pinterest for nerds,” Meghan replied.

            “And teachers and moms,” Morgan interjected.

            “Hey I have a Pinterest and I’m not a mom or a teacher,” Meghan said turning to her.

            “But you are a nerd!” Kelley stated, pointing at her.

            “Mmm, yeah, I could totally see you as a teacher or a mom. Blowing up Pinterest with all your recipes and lesson plans and do it yourself planter boxes,” Morgan responded matter of factly.

            “Anyway, yeah, it’s like Pinterest for people who like to share stuff from pop culture. How do you not have a Tumblr? You went to Stanford,” Meghan explained.

            “Those things are not mutually exclusive,” Kelley informed them.

            “And there it is,” Morgan muttered.

            “Yeah, ok,” Meghan said, still mildly confused. She shook it off and asked, “You know what a fandom is?”

            “No,” Kelley responded.

            “Really? Have you heard of fanfiction?” Meghan inquired hesitantly.

            “No,” Kelley replied.

            “Dude, you are like the worst nerd ever,” Meghan told her, shaking her head. “This conversation was actually easier with Hope. What are you like 80? How do you not know about this stuff?”

            “Me not nerd. Me smart jock,” Kelley said, beating her chest.

            “God, just get this over with. I need a nap!” Morgan complained.

            “You shut up,” Meghan pointed at Morgan. She turned back to Kelley, “Ok, here’s the short version. There are fans of our team on the internet who talk to each other about us and post pictures of us and write stories about us hooking up on Tumblr.”

            “What! Really?” Kelley laughed. She continued to laugh as she sputtered, “Seriously? For reals? That’s awesome. Stories about us! Oh my god!”

            Morgan and Meghan shared a look as they heard a quiet knock at the door. Kelley continued to roll around on the bed in laughter. Morgan shook her head slightly and Meghan sighed. She got up and opened the door.

            “Hey Kling,” Christen said, walking past her into the room. “What did you do to KO?”

            “Nothing,” Morgan replied from the bed.

            Kelley attempted to compose herself and immediately yelled out, “Dude, Press! There’re stories about us hooking up on the internet!”

            Meghan paled slightly as Christen looked back and forth between Kelley, Morgan, and herself. “What?” Christen asked.

            “People on the internet write stories about us hooking up!” Kelley yelled out again, still laughing, before Meghan could think about damage control.

            “There’s fanfiction about us?” Christen asked, sitting on the bed and looking up at Meghan.

            “Yeah,” Meghan responded and added, “among other things.”

            “Are you serious? Do we have a Tumblr fandom?” Christen asked, clearly intrigued at the idea.

            Morgan sat up suddenly and looked at Christen, head tilted to the side. Meghan looked at her and shrugged. She turned back to Press and answered, “Yeah, we do. Do you have a Tumblr?”

            “Yeah, of course,” Christen said simply.

            “Really? Because we literally had to explain everything to KO,” Meghan told her.

            “Well you know, I’m a proper Stanford grad and this one just pretends,” Christen replied, pointing a thumb in Kelley’s direction.

            “Hey! I have a diploma! And it says I graduated!” Kelley said indignantly.

            “Mmhmm,” Christen said nodding sarcastically. “Don’t lie dude, you hung out on frat row every day.”

            “Excuse you! I’ll have you know that I coded my own website and you still use Blogspot. Who uses Blogspot anymore? Get out of 2007,” Kelley retorted.

            “Are you serious? I know for a fact that you didn’t code your own website. And you use Wordpress for your blog! How complicated is that? All you have to click is the new post button and you blah, blah, blah and update. Not complicated. And plenty of people use Blogspot. It’s owned by Google for crying out loud!” Christen argued easily.

            “Whatever! Wordpress is actually quite complicated and at least I have a website. You have a blog! And these two don’t even have website. And furthermore I know HTML. You don’t know HTML. Nobody else on the team knows HTML. Hope has to send shit to her publicist to get it posted. And it has to go through heavy edits!” Kelley argued back.

            “What? Who cares if you know HTML? You still can’t code your website! Quit trying to convince people you are smarter than me! It’s not working!” Christen stated emphatically.

            Meghan laughed. Kelley shot her a death stare and Meghan laughed harder. Morgan smiled and said, “The point goes to Press!”

            “Screw you guys! Tell me more about these stories! I want to hear some!” Kelley said crossing her arms.

            “Dude, it’s called fanfiction and no, we aren’t hearing any,” Christen said taking out her phone. “Hey what’s the tag?” she asked Meghan.

            “Start with USWNT,” Meghan replied.

            “Hey who are these stories about? Am I in them?” Kelley asked.

            Morgan plopped back down on the bed and covered her eyes with her arm, signaling to Meghan that she was again on her own. Meghan said, “Most of the stories are about Ali and Ash, but yeah, you’re in some.”

            “Of course they are about Ali and Ash. What do they call them again?” Kelley said.

            “Krashlyn,” the three replied.

            “Nerds,” Kelley teased. “What are the stories about?”

            “Um, all kinds of stuff. The Ali and Ash ones are mostly about them being together or like, meeting and stuff. Some of them just use them as characters in random situations. Some are actually about soccer. Fanfiction can be about anything,” Meghan told her.

            “Anything?” Kelley asked.

            “Anything,” the three replied. Christen continued to scroll through the USWNT tag. Occasionally muttering a “hm” or “I love that picture.”

            “What do you mean anything?” Kelley pressed.

            Meghan and Morgan turned to Christen expectantly. She felt their stares and looked up. “Why do I have to tell her?” she asked.

            “You speak KO,” Meghan replied.

            Christen sighed through her nose and turned to Kelley, “Fanfiction can be about anything, but most of it is about two characters hooking up. It can get really dirty. Some of the fanfiction is really explicit. I’ll let you do the math.”

            “So people write about people on our team having sex?” Kelley asked.

            “Yes,” the trio answered.

            “With other people on our team?” Kelley pressed, wrinkling her nose.

            “Yes,” they answered.

            “Even if they’re not gay?” she continued.

            “Yes,” they said in unison again. “Especially if they’re not gay,” Meghan explained. “Fanfiction writers don’t care. Chemistry is chemistry, no matter gender or sexual orientation.”

            “Huh,” Kelley mused.

            They were quiet for a few seconds when Press groaned and looked up at Meghan, “We’re a ship?”

            Meghan grimaced, “Yeah. Sorry. People like their O’Press.”

            “Ugh! I should have known,” Christen signed.

            “What? What’s a ship? What’s O’Press?” Kelley asked.

            “Wow, you really are like 80,” Meghan mused. Christen looked at her expectantly and Meghan rolled her eyes. Morgan rolled over for the explanation, suddenly less tired. “Ok, so when people on the internet want two people to get together, they ‘ship’ them,” Meghan explained with air quotes. “It’s called a ‘ship’ because people want them to get into a relationship. Ships usually have a ship name, which is a combination of the two people’s names. Like Krashlyn is Krieger and Ashlyn put together. O’Press is O’Hara and Press put together.”

            “People want us to hook up!” Kelley asked looking at Christen, slightly horrified.

            Christen nodded with a smirk, “Not just us.”

            “Who else?” Kelley asked.

            “Alex and Tobin,” Christen replied.

            “What are they called?” Kelley inquired.

            “Talex,” all three replied.

            “God you guys are dorks. Who else?” she asked.

            Christen looked up at Meghan with a well are you going to tell her? look. Meghan stared back defiantly.

            “O’Solo,” Morgan piped up, unable to control herself.

            “O’Solo? People want O’Reilly and Hope to hook up?” Kelley asked innocently.

            “No dude. Try again,” Meghan pressed. Christen snickered.

            “Huh? Who else could it be? Who else’s name starts with O? Ohhhh! Really? Me and Hope?” Kelley said, finally putting it together.

            Christen laughed, “You are so embarrassing sometimes!”

            Meghan smiled and said, “Yeah dude. I just said O’Press was you and Christen. So O’Solo is obviously you and Hope.”

            “Not obviously! HAO is ‘O’-Reilly! It totally could have been her!” Kelley shot back.

            “Not if you know what we know. You are shipped with everybody! Christen, Hope, Alex, and Tobin. But O’Solo is the third most popular of all the ships,” Meghan replied.

            “Really? Why?” Kelley asked.

            “Morgan?” Meghan prompted, elbowing the younger player.

            “It’s because there are so many pictures of you hugging her and smacking her on the butt,” Morgan replied, a halfhearted attempt at disinterest.

            Meghan sent an eyebrow in her direction. Morgan smacked her in the leg. Christen caught the exchange and laughed. Kelley looked between them, knowing she was missing something, but not sure what.

            “Is Press with anybody else? Do you guys have ships?” Kelley probed.

            “We don’t really, but yeah, sorry Press. People ship her with you and Tobin and now JJ. The stuff with her and JJ is really starting to catch fire. They’re named Presston, but Tumblr calls them the cinnamon roll ship. They have some very devoted shippers,” Meghan explained. Christen just shook her head and returned to her phone.

            “The cinnamon roll ship?” Kelley asked.

            “Too good for this world, too pure,” Meghan and Morgan replied in unison. Christen laughed and shook her head, her attention still on her phone.

            “I don’t get it,” Kelley said.

            “You don’t have a Tumblr,” Christen pointed out.

            “What does that have to do with it?” Kelley pouted.

            “Everything,” they replied.

            “Anyway, I want to see! What are you looking at?” Kelley told Christen leaning over to see her phone.

            “I’m in the O’Solo tag right now. They’re right, it’s mostly fic and pictures of you guys hugging,” Christen told her, showing her the picture on her phone.

            “Really? It’s not like we go around hugging all day,” Kelley defended herself and Hope.

            “According to the internet you do. And you were hanging all over her this morning!” Morgan accused.

            “I was happy to see her. I hung all over Ashlyn too!” Kelley retorted.

            “You know, it’s really funny that people won’t ship Ali or Ash with anyone else, but you have like five ships,” Meghan mused.

            They all took a second to think that over. Kelley was the first to break the silence, “I want to hear some fanfiction!”

            “No!” Meghan and Morgan replied in unison.

            “Why not? It’s about me right? Don’t I have the right to know?” Kelley shot back.

            “Yeah, no, you can read it on your own. I’m not sitting here while you listen to smut about yourself. That’s weird,” Christen agreed.

            “C’mon read some!” Kelley prompted again. She grabbed Christen’s shoulder and shook it. “Pleeeeeeaaaase?” she begged.

            Christen looked at Meghan for direction. Meghan shrugged and said, “Just see what’s in the tag.”

            “Fine,” Christen replied. She scrolled for a bit, paused to read, and then scrolled back up. She straightened up and said, “Ok, this isn’t too bad. It’s short and it’s only sort of a fic. And people are arguing, so this will give you a really good idea of what Tumblr is all about.”

            Christen handed Kelley the phone, “Look at the picture and then read the caption underneath.”

            Kelley looked at the picture silently and then scrolled down slightly. Her eyes lit up in recognition and she said, “This was from Cap’s birthday! What the hell am I doing?”

            Meghan leaned forward and grabbed the phone. She tilted it towards Morgan and laughed, “Looks like you’re drinking! Man that dinner was so much fun!”

            Kelley grabbed the phone back and scrolled down. “Ok, the caption says, ‘Uhm…Can we just talk about Kelley and how the only thing separating her from Hope is JJ???’ Hey what the hell? I was sitting next to Pinoe!”

            Christen laughed, “Yeah the internet doesn’t always see it that way. They like when their ships are in close proximity. Keep reading.”

            Kelley shook her head and continued, “That’s weird. The next one says, ‘Where has this been? Oh shit, I feel a fic coming on. Kelley sits first and then JJ plops down next to her and then Carli sits two seats down. Hope strolls in and sees the seat next to Carli open. She looks to her right and says hi to JJ. Kelley whips her head around at the sound of Hope’s voice and Hope shrugs at Kelley’s reddening face. Kelley looks away quickly and takes a giant gulp of her champagne. Kelley sneaks a look back at Hope and when she does, she finds Hope looking back at her nonchalantly. Kelley becomes undone when Hope smirks and winks at her.’” Kelley paused and looked up. “What the hell dude? That totally didn’t happen!”

            Christen and Meghan shared a laugh while Morgan explained with a smile, “That’s why they call it fiction!”

            “Is this what it’s all like?” Kelley asked.

            “Yes and no. This is just a Tumblr post. The person who wrote it most likely writes actual fanfiction and just wrote something real quick in response to the picture. But yeah, the theme is typical,” Morgan replied.

            “Hm,” Kelley mused, her eyebrows knitting together. She returned to Christen’s phone and read, “Ok, I don’t know what this means. It says, ‘omg osaycayousolo why.’ Why, what?”

            “That was somebody’s response to the part that was the actual story. I think the person liked it and is asking the writer why they would do that,” Meghan said.

            “If they liked it, why would they ask why they did it? It doesn’t make sense,” Kelley continued, very confused.

            “That’s Tumblr for you!” Christen responded. “It probably means that they liked it too much and felt like the writer was torturing them. There’s a lot of that on Tumblr. People are always talking about how they are dying and how other people are tormenting them with what they post. It’s the, like, Tumblr culture. It’s how they communicate their mutual enjoyment of something.”

            “By torturing each other?” Kelley asked.

            “Yes!” they replied. “Keep reading!” Morgan said, barely hiding her interest.

            Kelley smiled at her and said, “Ok this next part is long, ‘Kelley’s blush deepens and she shakes her head. Pinoe elbows her in the ribs and wiggles her eyebrows suggestively before turning toward Hope. Hope rewards Pinoe with a laugh of her own, everyone else at the table completely clueless to the battle for self-control raging within O’Hara. Kelley loses it when Hope licks her lips calmly and the young defender quickly excuses herself. She heads toward the bathroom without looking back. Pinoe gives Hope a pointed stare and Hope shrugs in return. Carli, predictably having noticed the whole exchange, leans toward Hope and whispers, ‘Didn’t you just say you had to go to the bathroom?’ Hope replies, ‘Indeed I do,’ with a quick nod. She gets up from the table and Pinoe shares a mischievous smile with Carli.’” Kelley looked up at her teammates with a mixture of surprise and horror, “Oh my god! Are we going to hook up in the bathroom?”

            “It certainly seems like it!” Meghan replied, smiling playfully.

            “I don’t know if I can read this. This is weird!” Kelley admitted, covering her eyes with her hand, as if trying to block out what she’s just read.

            “We tried to warn you, but you wanted to hear it. You get to suffer through it!” Meghan said accusingly.

            “I didn’t know it would be like this!” Kelley complained.

            “Oh my god, give me the phone, I’ll read it. You’re sitting through this though! You asked for it!” Christen said, taking the phone from Kelley. Kelley closed her eyes and put her hands over her face.

            “Nooooo! Stoooooop!” she whined lightheartedly.

            Christen rolled her eyes and read, “’Unfortunately, Pinoe can’t contain herself any longer and she laughs out loud. JJ turns toward her, asking about the joke she obviously missed. Hope hears a quiet catcall whistle, probably from Ash and can’t contain her laughter as she pushes open the bathroom door. Kelley hears the catcall and knows Hope is headed her way. She steels herself, determined to pounce on the opportunity to turn the tides. Hope barely gets through the door before she’s attacked by five feet, five inches of sexual frustration. Kelley slams her up against the door and pulls Hope’s head crushingly toward her mouth.'”

            “Oh my god! I can’t listen to this!” Kelley muttered, her face turning pink with embarrassment. She stuck her fingers in her ears and started humming.

            Christen reached out and pulled on Kelley’s arm, effectively dislodging one of Kelley’s fingers and continued with a smile, “’Hope is indeed caught off guard and it takes her brain a few seconds to get back in the game. Not one to be outdone, Hope quickly flips them around so that she’s the one pushing Kelley up against the door. Kelley hears the lock click as Hope dips her head to kiss Kelley behind her left ear. Not long into their ferocious make out session, they hear a grunt from the other side of the door. ‘What the hell? I gotta pee!’ they hear Syd yell. ‘Use the mens!’ they shout back. ‘What? Fine! Get a fucking room!’ Syd yells back. They hear the door to the men’s room creak open and take a second to smile at each other. ‘How much time do think we have left?’ Kelley asks. ‘Don’t know, don’t care,’ Hope replies, effectively ending the conversation with another kiss.’”

            “OH. MY. GOD! Is that it?” Kelley yelled, covering her ears emphatically.

            The trio burst into laughter at KO’s reddening face. “Yep, that’s it. Dude, you’re blushing just like in the fic!” Christen told her.

            “Whyyyyyyyy?’ Kelley lamented, burying her head under a pillow.

            “You asked for it!” Meghan responded. The trio shared a smile at Kelley’s discomfort.

            “You totally asked for it! That’s what you get KO,” Morgan agreed.

            “They have a point. If you can’t take the heat, don’t read the fic,” Christen told her.

            “Never again! Hope said it was funny. How is that funny?” Kelley said, the pillow muffling her words.

            “Oh it’s funny! Just maybe not for you. But from here, it’s hilarious!” Christen said, laughing again.

            “And Hope didn’t ask to read any. Maybe she knew you’d push for it and end up embarrassed. She’s crafty like that,” Meghan said, still annoyed with the goalkeeper’s comments during practice.

            “I will never trust Hope Solo again!” Kelley yelled, pulling the pillow off of her face.

            “Oh sure, until the next time she hugs you,” Morgan shot back. Kelley shot her a defiant look and chucked the pillow in her direction. Meghan leaned out of the way and let the pillow land squarely on Morgan’s face.

            “Hey!” Morgan exclaimed.

            Christen’s phone buzzed. She read the message and turned to Kelley, “Hey Pitch Perfect 2 in Whit and Kling’s room in five. You coming?”

            “Oh my god yes! Get me the hell out of here!” Kelley said jumping off the bed.

            “Hey say hi to Hope for us!” Meghan said to Kelley as she made her way to the door.

            Kelley turned and flipped her off. “Oh sure no problem,” she said.

            Christen laughed and got up to follow after Kelley. She turned back to her teammates on the bed. “Are you guys going to tell everyone?” she asked.

            Morgan looked to Meghan before answering, “We didn’t want to and now three people know. So yeah, probably.”

            “Good luck with that,” Christen said, walking out the door.

            “Yeah no kidding,” Meghan muttered.

            “Oh my god, that was hilarious! I think we scarred KO for life!” Morgan said laughing once Christen was out the door.

            Meghan nodded her agreement. “Man this has been weird. They’re going to end up calling us the New Nerd Squad. Just wait, everyone will know within the week.”

            “God, I hope not. Does the team really need to know how geeky we are?” Morgan asked.

            “It’s not something we’ve been hiding very well,” Meghan replied.

            “Yeah thanks to your Snapchat,” Morgan shot back.

            “Hey my Snapchat is the stuff of legend!” Meghan said indignantly. She picked up the pillow Kelley had thrown and smacked Morgan with it.

            “Whatever! It’s mostly of me anyway!” Morgan said, deflecting the pillow strike with her hand.

            “No it’s not! It’s mostly me! It’s my Snapchat!” Meghan argued.

            “Yeah ok Kling. You think the coffee place downstairs is still open? I really want some hot chocolate,” Morgan said, sitting up.

            “Don’t know, want to take a walk?” Meghan asked.

            “Yeah, let’s get out of here before anyone else wants to read fanfiction about themselves!” Morgan replied, nodding emphatically.

            Meghan got off the bed and moved toward the door. “You gotta admit,” she said, “that was hilarious!”

            “Yeah it was,” Morgan agreed. “I’m glad KO got what she deserved!”

Chapter Text

            Morgan tried to shake off the fatigue that had crept back into her limbs. She swung her arms across her body to get her blood pumping. She’d have to put down the fic for the night or she’d be just as tired tomorrow for the game. Meghan would never let her live that down. Not that she was going to let Morgan live down the fact that she’d started shipping her teammates, but still.

            “Dude, careful where you’re swinging! You almost clipped my head,” Meghan said, leaning out of the way.

            “No I didn’t. Stop being dramatic. You’re so short my arms would go over your head anyway,” Morgan retorted.

            They walked in silence down the corridor toward the lobby of the hotel until Meghan snorted with sudden laughter.

            “What?” Morgan asked cautiously.

            “I was just thinking that the next time Kell says she has to go to the bathroom, we should tell her to use the men’s,” Meghan laughed.

            “Oh my god, yes! We have to!” Morgan agreed, clapping in glee.

            “Totally! She’ll be so mad! It’ll be great. Hey we also have to tell big mouth keeper that Kelley knows and that she made us read her some!” Meghan agreed.

            “Did you know Hope Solo was such a gossip?” Morgan asked.

            “Yes! I should’ve known that she was going to go around telling everybody. She’s such a tormentor. Can you imagine her on Tumblr? Killing fandoms, one gif at a time!” Meghan replied.

            Morgan laughed as they rounded the corner into the lobby. She cheered briefly when they found that the Starbucks was indeed still open. Morgan breathed in her hot chocolate through the hole in the top of the lid with a smile. Meghan shook her head and tended to her tea. “Wanna hang out here or go back?” Meghan asked.

            “Let’s go back,” Morgan replied. “I need to go to bed early.”

            “Mmhm, sure you do. No fic tonight! Tomorrow’s a game day!” Meghan scolded.

            “Why do you think I’m going to bed early?” Morgan replied, as they walked out of the Starbucks into the lobby.

            Morgan noticed Megan Rapinoe sitting in one of the oversized chairs in the corner of the lobby. Pinoe smiled widely as Morgan gave her a friendly wave. Her smile turned to a dangerous Pinoe smirk as she signaled for them to come over.

            Morgan looked at Meghan hesitantly. “What do you think she wants?” she asked.

            “Could be anything, it’s Pinoe,” Meghan replied, worry in her voice. “We better go over there or she’ll start stalking us. Be on the alert!”

            “Hey ladies!” Pinoe greeted them with a smile. “Step into my office,” she said, gesturing to the chairs facing her with a wide sweep of her arm.

            “Uh ok. What’s up Pinoe? That’s a big cup of tea you got there,” Meghan replied.

            “Seattle, ladies. It sucks you in and makes you drink exclusively out of giant tea mugs,” Pinoe replied, pausing to smile at them. “I’m so very glad you two happened past me. I’ve been hoping to grab you all evening!”

            “Um, ok. What can we do for you?” Meghan asked, looking at Morgan anxiously. Morgan replied with a silent shrug and sipped her hot chocolate.

            “Well, I heard you guys have finally come across our secret little internet fans and you can’t keep your mouth shut about it,” Rapinoe stated, crossing her legs and putting her hands in her lap.

            “Uh, we, uh, I, um,” Morgan sputtered wide eyed.

            Meghan shook her head at Pinoe and patted Morgan reassuringly on the knee, “Look, you’ve upset Moe. She was just coming down here to enjoy some hot chocolate and now she’s stuttering.”

            “Funny. This is going to go a lot easier if you tell me what you know and we can go from there,” Pinoe replied, staring down Meghan.

            “Ok, fine. A: yes we found it, but it wasn’t our idea to tell anyone. Hope forced it out of us and has basically been spreading the word ever since. B: Are you implying that we were not the first to come across this and that you knew already?” Meghan responded, taken aback at the idea that others on the team had been keeping this secret.

            “A: You know Hope enjoys torturing you guys, so yes of course she’s spreading the word just to mess with you. B: Yes, I found it a while back,” Pinoe stated, taking a casual sip of her tea.

            “Really?” Morgan asked. “When did you find it? How did you find it? Why didn’t you tell anybody?”

            Pinoe sighed and placed her giant mug back on the table next to her chair. “Why don’t we do this? I will tell you what I know and then you can tell me what you know and who else knows and we can go from there. Does that seem fair?”

            Morgan and Meghan shared a silent conversation and then nodded at Pinoe. “Deal,” Meghan replied verbally.

            “You two are kind of like the Wonder Twins, you know that?” Pinoe responded.

            “The Wonder Twins?” Morgan inquired, clearly confused.

            “Dude, before you we were born. Probably before Pinoe was born actually,” she replied to Morgan with another knee pat. “Wait, wasn’t one of the Wonder Twins a guy?” Meghan asked their older teammate.

            Pinoe shrugged and smiled. She leaned forward and said, “Ok, I’ll go first. You know I didn’t find it. Sera found it. She’s much more internet savvy than I am. I think it started with Krashlyn.”

            “It always starts with Krashlyn,” Meghan and Morgan said in unison.

            Pinoe laughed, “Yeah it does! So she called me in and had to explain what she found. This was a while back, around Christmastime I think, so there may be more now, but we found a bunch of fans on social media, fans on Tumblr and Pinterest, and the fanfiction. Later we found the YouTube stuff.”

            “The YouTube stuff?” Meghan asked leaning forward. Morgan sat up in her seat and shot a confused look at Pinoe.

            “Yeah, the fan videos on YouTube. You know those videos that are like music videos but with the couple in them instead of the actual band?” Pinoe explained.

            “We didn’t find any videos. We found the Tumblr stuff and all the fanfiction, but we didn’t see any fan videos. Who’s in the videos?” Meghan probed.

            “It’s pretty much all Ali and Ashlyn. There’s a bunch of them though. I haven’t checked to see if it’s worse now than before the World Cup, but it’s most likely more wide spread given our recently increased popularity,” Pinoe informed them.

            “Huh, I didn’t even think of YouTube. How did we not think of YouTube?” Meghan asked, turning to face Morgan.

            Morgan replied with a pointed look and Pinoe laughed. “You guys got sucked into the fanfiction didn’t you?”

            “Of course we did! How did you not get sucked in?” Meghan responded, slightly offended.

            “I’m not a nerd like you guys. I’m just a lovable dork. Plus I already wanted all of our teammates to get together. I didn’t need fanfiction to imagine it,” Pinoe responded.

            “You ship our teammates?” Morgan asked, hoping that she wasn’t the only one.

            “If that’s what you want to call it. I was a matchmaker in another life. The internet nerds of the world only started calling it shipping in the mid 90’s, but people have wanted other people to get involved romantically with other people since the beginning of human history. It’s in our DNA. For some reason, we as a species really want to see people get together,” Pinoe lectured thoughtfully.

            “Hm,” Meghan nodded thinking that over. Morgan sipped her hot chocolate pensively.

            “So, you ladies found Tumblr and fanfiction. How bad is it now?” Pinoe inquired.

            “Well, Tumblr is pretty crazy with fans posting all kinds of pictures and stuff. They seem to be keeping it up because of the league. And then the three main ships are pretty big. You know about those right?” Meghan asked.

            “The big three? Sure. I’m really not surprised about Ali and Ashlyn. I’m also not surprised about Hope and Kelley. I get everyone’s infatuation with Tobin and Alex, but I’m surprised it’s the second most popular. But people love their… what do they call them again?” Pinoe probed.

            “Talex,” Morgan said into her cup of hot chocolate.

            “Right! Talex. People love their Talex. The other couples are all just random, so we didn’t pay much attention to those. How much fic is there now?” Pinoe said.

            “There were more than a thousand the last we looked,” Meghan replied.

            “1,068 to be exact,” Morgan muttered.

            Pinoe raised her eye brows at Morgan and sniffed a laugh. “It’s important to be exact,” she said.

            “Exactly,” Morgan replied, turning an eyebrow in Meghan’s direction.

            “Whatever teammate shipper,” Meghan replied to Morgan. She turned back to Pinoe as Morgan rolled her eyes, “So we’ve told Hope because we had to. Hope told Kelley and she stalked us and harassed us and then made us read her some fic. And Press walked in while we were telling Kelley so she knows too. But apparently Press is a proper nerd so she wasn’t surprised.”

            “Ok, your biggest problem is Hope. I’d watch out, she’s probably got a hidden agenda regarding with whom she’s sharing this knowledge. Almost everything she does is on purpose. Never forget that,” Pinoe cautioned.

            “It was an accident! We didn’t know it was her table!” Meghan retorted, huffing.

            “Of course it wasn’t an accident. She knew what she was doing. She saw you guys coming and got up for another cup of coffee. She’s up to something. Watch yourselves,” Pinoe counseled.

            “You think so?” Morgan asked.

            “I know so. We’ve been teammates for a long time and she’s got that sparkle in her eye. She pushed KO to talk to you guys and then KO ran squealing out of your room. Mark my words, she’s up to something. Thank the stars this is happening now and not during the Cup. Carli would’ve had a fit,” Pinoe responded.

            “Oh shit, Carli cannot find out about this!” Meghan said, putting her hand over her mouth.

            “She already knows. I told her when I found out. Carli hates surprises. But you guys need to be subtle. Don’t let this be a distraction for you or anybody else. Carli will have words with you if you do,” Pinoe lectured.

            “Yes, Pinoe,” the girls replied together.

            Pinoe rolled her eyes and said, “You guys really are the Wonder Twins. Just be careful, ok ladies? It’s obvious you didn’t go out and try to spread the word, but handle this with care. You know as well as I do that our teammates and the characters they are portrayed to be on the internet are not the same people. If it is as widespread as you say, you are going to need to tell the members of the big three so that they have a heads up. It will be easier than letting them find out on their own and then learning that you already knew.”

            “Yes, Pinoe,” they responded in unison again.

            Pinoe shook her head, “Ashlyn’s going to be your biggest challenge. I have a feeling Ali already knows. Tobin and Alex may have also gotten inklings, but Ashlyn may lose it when she finds out about the fic. She loves to tease their fans and I think she may have bitten off more than she can chew. Think of a strategy ahead of time. And if someone doesn’t need to know, then don’t tell them. We really don’t need this becoming a thing.”

            “Yes, Pinoe,” they said, both giggling.

            “Seriously?” Pinoe asked.

            “Yes, Pinoe,” they replied, barely containing their laughter.

            Pinoe shook her head and stood up. She retrieved her mug and said, “Ok, fine. But heed my advice ladies. Hope is dangerous, have a plan for Ashlyn, tell the big three, and keep it together, ok?”

            “Ok, Pinoe,” they responded, trying to keep straight faces.

            Pinoe patted them both on the head as she walked away. “Goodnight ladies,” she called over her shoulder.

            “Goodnight Pinoe,” they called after her.

            Meghan let out a final giggle and took a deep breath. The girls sat in silence, sipping their drinks and thinking seriously about Pinoe’s advice.

            Morgan was the first to break the silence when she asked, “So what now?”

            Meghan looked away, thinking. After a bit she sighed and turned back to Morgan, “Honestly? I’m not sure. Pinoe brings up some really good points. We need to be careful of Hope and Ashlyn is going to light us up when she finds out. I think we need to make sure we have Ali there when we tell her.”

            “Good point. But if Ali does really know about this, then why wouldn’t she tell Ash?” Morgan asked.

            “Don’t know, maybe… maybe Ash likes teasing the fandom, but wants to make sure it’s on her terms and Ali knows that she’d be upset about this. I really don’t know though. And I’m not sure Pinoe really knows if Ali knows or not. It doesn’t seem like Pinoe told her, so maybe she found out another way. If Ash comes at us, we get Ali right away. Sound good?” Meghan reasoned.

            Morgan nodded and replied, “Yep, good plan boss.”

            “Ok cool. It’s past your bedtime, let’s go,” Meghan said as she got up.

            “Help me up?” Morgan said, lips pouting.

            “Fine, you big baby,” Meghan said as she held her hand out for her best friend.

Chapter Text

            “I think I may be dying,” Morgan lamented as she lay on her back on the bed, feet propped up on a pillow.

            “You’re not dying. Just lay there like you’re supposed to and keep your mouth shut when Becky gets here,” Meghan chided from her perch on the hotel chair, feet resting on the bed. She was waiting for Becky to come by to drop off her book. Morgan had been ordered by the trainers to lay with her feet up, applying heat to her injured back regularly. Morgan had complained since they’d gotten back to the hotel. Meghan had taken pity on her and promised to hang out with her after dinner.

            “Easy for you to say! You scored a goal and all I got was hurt. This sucks,” Morgan whined, dropping her forearm over her eyes.

            “You’re killing me! You’ll be fine, just chill out and lay there with your heat pack,” Meghan replied, rolling her eyes. “Here, read some fic, you’ve earned it,” she said, handing Morgan her iPad.

            “You don’t have to stay here with me you know. I know you want to go out and celebrate. I can take care of myself Kling,” Morgan stated with a huff.

            Meghan shook her head and started to reply, but a knock at the door interrupted her thought. She stood up and shook her finger at Morgan, “Even though you’re whiny, you’re still hurt. And there’s a curfew so here I am. Now read your fic and don’t say anything about it to Becky.”

            “Ok Mom,” Morgan muttered, tapping her iPad aggressively. Meghan smirked and walked to the door.

            “Hey Becky,” Meghan greeted the defender as she opened the door.

            “Hey Kling,” Becky replied, entering the room. She looked over at Morgan and waved, “Hey Moe, how are you feeling?”

            “Hey Broon, apparently I’m whiny, but surviving,” Morgan replied, shooting daggers at Meghan. Meghan just rolled her eyes and sat back down in the chair by the table.

            “Um, ok. I hope it’s nothing serious. Keep that heat on it though,” Becky counseled. Morgan nodded her thanks and returned to her iPad. Becky handed Meghan her book and sat at the table next to her. “Thanks for letting me borrow this,” she said to Meghan.

            “No problem, I figured you’d like it. What did you think?” Meghan asked, turning her back to Morgan on the bed.

            “I definitely liked it. I had to google some of the references though. I don’t know that much about 80’s video games, but it was good. There’s going to be a movie right?” Becky replied.

            “Yeah, but not for a while I think. I’m not sure how exactly they are going to pull it off. I could see it getting really confusing. Like what’s the virtual world? What’s real? How do you tell the difference?” Meghan mused.

            Becky nodded and replied, “Yeah, I get that. Have you gotten the new one yet? Armada? Is it related to Ready Player One?”

            “Not yet, but no I don’t think it’s related. I’m pretty sure it has to do with video games though. I think that’s his thing…” Meghan trailed off, looking at the door intently. Morgan turned to look at her with wide eyes. Outside, in the hall, someone was yelling their names. “Shit!” Meghan exclaimed, suddenly jumping up.

            “What’s going on?” Becky asked looking between Meghan and Morgan as an insistent pounding came from the door.

            The pounding continued as a voice yelled, “I know you’re in there! Open the fucking door!”

            “Shit, shit, shit, shit, crap,” Meghan mumbled as she hurried to the door. Morgan winced as she tried to sit up. Becky sat on the edge of her chair, equal parts intrigued and confused.

            Ashlyn came barreling through the door just as Meghan opened it. Meghan barely jumped out of the way before she was bulldozed by the clearly pissed off goalie. “What the fuck you guys? People are writing stories about me and Alex? And you guys didn’t tell me? What! The! Fuck!” Ashlyn shouted, moving farther into the room with her hands raised in the air.

            Morgan clamped her mouth shut, wide eyes directed at Meghan. Meghan walked slowly toward Ashlyn, hands raised in surrender. “Ash, why don’t you take a seat? Let’s talk this over.”

            “I don’t want to sit down! Fucking explain this right now Kling!” Ashlyn yelled in response, one hand on her hip, the other pointing at Meghan intently.

            “What’s going on? What is she talking about?” Becky asked, her voice suddenly filled with authority.

            Meghan took a deep breath and snapped her fingers at Morgan. Morgan nodded once and reached for her phone. Meghan pointed to Ashlyn and ordered, “You! Sit!” She turned back to Becky and said, “Ash and I are going to have a conversation. It’s probably something you should know, so I’m going to let you stay, but no questions. I’ll explain later.” Becky shrugged and sat back in her chair. Ashlyn crossed her arms defiantly and stared down Meghan. Meghan tilted her head and asked, “Do you want me to tell you or not? Sit!”

            Ashlyn huffed and sat on the edge of the empty bed. Meghan sat down cautiously on the bed with Morgan, careful not to jostle the injured player. Morgan appeared to take no notice, fingers intensely texting. Ashlyn’s jaw clenched in anger, but she stayed silent. Meghan took a deep breath and leaned toward Ashlyn, “This is really important Ash. Who told you?”

            “Who fucking cares who fucking told me? Tell me what you found!” Ashlyn exploded, hands flying in the air.

            “Look Ash, I’m going to answer all of your questions, but you need to tell me who told you. Was it Hope?” Meghan pressed.

            “It doesn’t fucking matter who told me! Now I know! Start talking!” Ashlyn yelled, arms flailing wildly.

            “Ok, ok,” Meghan replied, trying to calm down the goalkeeper. “I will tell you everything, but this is important, who told you?”

            “Oh my god! Yes it was Hope ok? What does it fucking matter?” Ashlyn shouted, standing up again.

            “God damn her,” Meghan muttered. Morgan murmured in agreement. Meghan sighed loudly and looked up at Ashlyn, “Ok, thank you. Now just take a breath and sit down.” Ashlyn clenched her jaw and sat back on the bed. “Yes, there are fictional stories about you and Ali on the internet written by fans-“

            “On the internet!?! Seriously! What kind of a sick fuck writes stories about people on the internet?” Ashlyn interrupted.

            “Oh my god, are you guys talking about fanfiction?” Becky asked, sitting up in her chair again.

            Meghan turned back to Becky, “Yes, now stop asking questions. We will discuss this later.”

            “What the fuck is fanfiction?” Ashlyn asked loudly, drawing the room’s attention back to her.

            “Ash, I need you to take it down like ten notches ok? I’m going to explain. There are people in the world who are fans of things. Some of those fans write fictional stories about the things they love. It’s called fanfiction. They are not sick fucks ok? They are just really passionate fans that want to share the stories they create in their heads with other people so they put them on the internet. People write fanfiction about literally everything. Fanfiction can be about characters in books or movies or tv shows. It can also be about real people. Like you and Ali and other people on our team. Are you with me so far?” Meghan explained carefully.

            Ashlyn’s brows knit together, as if trying to wrap her head around the idea of people sitting on their computers writing stories about her and her teammates. “Yeah, ok fine,” she replied. “But why are they writing about me and Alex?”

            Meghan and Morgan shared a look. Morgan nodded slightly and cautiously replied, “Because you guys are like the cutest couple of all time and everybody knows it.”

            Ashlyn turned to Morgan, as if just noticing her in the room and replied, “Really Moe?”

            Meghan nodded as Morgan sunk back into her pillows, as if trying to hide from Ashlyn’s glare. Meghan smiled and said, “Actually, that’s the reason. Everybody loves you guys, but you dictate what the fans see. So their reaction is to make up their own stories about you guys and your relationship.”

            “Seriously? How is that ok? It’s nobody’s business but our own!” Ashlyn replied, her voice rising again.

            A knock interrupted Meghan’s reply. “Hey Becky can you get that please?” she asked Becky, before addressing Ashlyn again, “You’re right, but you guys have some seriously devoted fans.”

            Becky opened the door and Ali walked in apologizing, “I’m sorry guys, I came as soon as I could.”

            “You fucking knew? Why didn’t you tell me?” Ashlyn said, turning angrily toward her girlfriend.

            Ali took a deep breath as she sat down next to Ashlyn. “Babe, I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d freak out.”

            “Freak out? I’m not freaking out! I’m fucking pissed because a bunch of people, including you, knew about this and didn’t tell me!” Ashlyn replied loudly, turning toward Ali on the bed.

            “Dude, you’re freaking out,” Meghan interjected.

            “Shut it Kling! You should’ve told me too. And now you brought Ali in? What the fuck?” Ashlyn turned on Meghan.

            “Babe, just listen. We didn’t want you to be upset about this. I know I should have told you, but I didn’t ok? Now you know and you’re freaking out. I didn’t want this to be a distraction for us this year, so I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry,” Ali explained, placing her hand on Ashlyn’s knee. Ashlyn physically softened at the touch and closed her eyes, apparently attempting to calm herself.

            “Ok, I get it. I’m freaking out. But it’s our life Alex. I don’t like other people making up stuff about us,” Ashlyn replied, much more calmly.

            “I get that and you’re absolutely right. It is our life, but most of the stories are harmless. It’s like the Krashlyn comments we get on Instagram, people just want to see us together and since we don’t want to go public, people make up whatever they want about us,” Ali responded. Meghan nodded in agreement.

            Ashlyn looked at Meghan and scowled. Meghan scooted farther back onto the bed, accidentally bumping into Morgan, who let out a hiss of pain. Meghan quickly muttered an apology. Ashlyn turned back to Ali and asked, “When did you find out?”

            Ali smiled slightly and admitted, “Around Christmas I guess.”

            Ashlyn pulled back and exclaimed, “Seriously? That was like 8 months ago! How’d you find out?”

            “Kyle,” Ali said, simply.

            “How the hell did Kyle find out?” Ashlyn inquired loudly.

            “You know Kyle, somebody sent him a link to some internet fan site on Twitter and he actually clicked on it. He called me shortly after and told me all about it. I was upset at first, but the more I looked into it, the less it bothered me,” Ali explained.

            “How does it not bother you? These are stories about our lives. About us,” Ashlyn said quietly, scooting closer to Ali.

            “Because it’s not really us. Not the real us. I mean, they use our names, but we are just characters to them. Nothing they write about is true. Only our stories are real,” Ali replied quietly.

            “Hm,” Ashlyn replied, thinking that over. Meghan looked at Morgan uncomfortably. The atmosphere in the room had gotten a little too intimate for comfort. Meghan suddenly felt like a third wheel, but she didn’t want to break the spell Ali had over Ashlyn. It was the only thing able to calm the keeper. “But why us? Why not anybody else?”

            “Come on babe, how do you think this happened? We love to tease the fans with our tweets and pictures on Instagram. You love posting pictures of us and then laughing about how it will send the fans into a frenzy. Well this is a consequence of that frenzy,” Ali said.

            “So you are saying this is my fault?” Ashlyn asked pointedly.

            “No, it’s no one’s fault. We’re just adorable according to Kyle and that’s how these things start. Not every couple gets named you know. According to him it’s a high honor,” Ali replied.

            “Being called Krashlyn is an honor?” Ashlyn asked, turning to Meghan.

            Meghan cleared her throat before replying, “Yes actually. Not many real life couples have a ship name, the name your fans gave you. It means you are a really popular couple.”

            “We are?” Ashlyn asked, clearly interested.

            “Yep, you are. You guys are the most shipped couple on the national team,” Meghan said, nodding. Morgan also nodded and slipped a look at Becky. She was keeping silent, but a peculiar look crossed her face. She looked up and met Morgan’s eyes. The look immediately vanished and she sent Morgan a shrug.

            “See? We’re the most popular couple!” Ali said, patting Ashlyn on the knee.

            “Wait, so there are other couples? But nobody else on the team is together,” Ashlyn asked Meghan.

            Meghan laughed, “Yeah that doesn’t mean anything in the world of fanfiction. Our team’s fans write fanfiction about a bunch of people. You two are the most popular by far, but there are stories about almost everybody.”

            “Really? Who’s second?” Ashlyn asked, eyes eager.

            Meghan looked to Morgan and nodded. Morgan smiled widely as she answered, “Baby horse and Tobs.”

            “No way!” Ashlyn replied as Meghan laughed. Meghan turned to look at Becky, who was also stifling a laugh. “Who else?”

            “Hope and KO,” Meghan replied with a shrug.

            “Oh my god! Shut up! Alex and Tobin I sorta get because they are always together, but Hope and Kelley? Hope? And Kelley? Hope Solo and Kelley O’Hara? Shut up!” Ashlyn said, laughing in disbelief.

            “Well they are third in popularity. They have a ship name too,” Meghan replied.

            “They do? What is it?” Ashlyn

            “O’Solo,” Morgan replied with a smirk.

            “O’Solo? That’s so not as cool as Krashlyn,” Ashlyn said smugly.

            “See? We’re the best,” Ali said, rubbing Ashlyn’s back reassuringly.

            “Yeah, of course we are. I guess if this shit has to exist, it’s good to be the best,” Ashlyn conceded.

            “That’s one way to look at it, I guess. But seriously, Kyle has read some, I have read some, Moe and Kling have clearly read some, and it’s really nothing to freak out over,” Ali said smirking at the bed that held Morgan and Meghan. Meghan laughed, but Morgan flushed and covered her face with her hands, trying to hide her embarrassment.

            “Apparently Moe has read a lot of it. But what’s it about? Hope said some of the stories are about us having sex,” Ashlyn asked, eyebrows scrunching in concern.

            Meghan rolled her eyes and cursed Hope under her breath. “Ok, yeah, some of the stories are explicit, but remember that they are fictional. They aren’t really writing about you guys, they are writing about the characters they have created in their heads that have your names. Half of the time the stories don’t even take place in the real world. They just think you guys are cute together and then put you in random situations like the zombie apocalypse,” she replied to Ashlyn.

            “There’s a story about the zombie apocalypse? Am I a badass in it?” Ashlyn asked excitedly.

            “Yes and yes,” Meghan replied.

            “It’s getting good,” Morgan interjected. “Except for the part where I’m secretly or not so secretly in love with Kling.”

            “Wait what?” Meghan yelped, whipping around to face Morgan. A chorus of “oh my god” and laughter erupted from the other three players in the room. Morgan nodded solemnly and shrugged. “When did that happen?” Meghan asked.

            “Can’t remember, it was a recent update,” Morgan replied, cheeks slightly pink.

            “Well I guess we finally have fic about us,” Meghan said.

            “Welcome to the club,” Ali interjected.

            “Hey thanks,” Meghan said sarcastically.

            “So what are we supposed to do? Just ignore it? I still don’t like the idea of people writing about us,” Ashlyn said, looking at Ali with concern.

            Ali sighed, “There’s really nothing we can do babe. I don’t like the idea of there being a bunch of stories about us out there in the world either, but they’re there and that’s the reality. You just have to think of them as stories about people who have our names. Plenty of journalists have written shit about us, this is at least more complimentary.”

            “Yeah I guess. But journalists don’t write about our sex life,” Ashlyn argued calmly.

            “True, at least I hope they don’t,” Ali replied smiling. Ashlyn shook her head at Ali’s attempt at a joke. “But seriously, it’s not that bad. I’ll show you some later.”

            Morgan snorted a laugh and then covered her face with her hands when everyone turned to face her. “I swear to god Moe, if you weren’t injured, I’d throw something at you,” Ashlyn challenged.

            “Sorry!” Morgan muttered, trying to hide into the pillows again.

            “Ok, ok, leave the kid alone. Look Ash, if you have more questions I want to answer them, but if not, I’m kicking you guys out. Moe needs to rest and you two are getting a little too cute for comfort,” Meghan said, turning back to Ash.

            “I think we’re good. You ok babe? Can we leave them to their secret love affair now?” Ali asked with a smirk. Morgan rolled her eyes as Meghan scoffed at the question.

            Ashlyn laughed, “Yeah, I’m good. Sorry I came in here like a wrecking ball. Thanks for talking me down.”

            “No prob dude. Sorry you had to hear about it from Hope. She’s spreading the word like wildfire. We never should have told her,” Meghan replied.

            “Why did you tell her?” Ali asked, standing to leave.

            “Wasn’t my idea!” Morgan said, staring down Meghan.

            “Yeah, she sort of intimidated it out of us. She can be very persuasive,” Meghan added.

            “Hm, that’s interesting. This is both like her and unlike her. Weird,” Ali mused.

            “You can say that again,” Meghan replied, standing up and walking back to the chair next to Becky.

            “Alright, thanks for the chat guys. Sorry I freaked out on you. Feel better Gumby,” Ashlyn said, following Ali toward the door.

            “Thanks Harris,” Morgan replied.

            “Bye,” the remaining players chorused as Ali and Ashlyn exited the room.

            Meghan sighed as she sunk back into her chair. “Well that went just as well as I expected,” she said, turning to Morgan.

            “You can say that again!” Morgan agreed, picking her iPad back up.

            “So… why don’t you just give me the abridged version,” Becky interjected.

            Meghan turned to look at her and calmly stated, “We have a fandom.”

            “Like a fandom fandom? Like a real fandom? An internet fandom?” Becky asked.

            “Yep. A Tumblr, Twitter, fanfic, YouTube, shipper fandom,” Meghan responded.

            “Hm, wow. I didn’t see that coming,” Becky said, eyes deep in thought.

            “Don’t google it. It’s not worth it,” Morgan muttered from the bed, reading something from her iPad.

            Meghan and Becky shared a laugh as Morgan shook her head. “So who knows now?” Becky asked.

            “So far us, Hope, KO, Press, Pinoe, Ali, Ash, and now you,” Meghan replied.

            “Don’t forget Carli! Pinoe said Carli knows,” Morgan exclaimed without looking up.

            “Oh yeah right, thanks Moe. Pinoe said she told Carli. I guess she was right about Ali knowing. Our plan totally wouldn’t have worked if she hadn’t actually known. I wonder how Pinoe knew she knew. She didn’t say she told her, only that she had a feeling,” Meghan wondered aloud.

            “Hm,” Becky said, nodding and looking away from Meghan in thought. “So what about Alex and Tobin? Are you going to tell them?”

            Meghan rubbed her face as she thought that over. Morgan looked up, eager to hear Meghan’s answer. This was, after all, all Meghan’s fault, so Morgan decided the decision was hers. “Pinoe said we should and now after what happened with Ash, I think she’s right,” Meghan said finally, looking at Morgan. Morgan silently nodded her agreement.

            “Well, have fun with that. Alex will probably take it ok, but Tobin may be upset. You might want to think about telling them together. It was a good call to bring Ali in tonight. Ash is never able to be that upset around Kriegs,” Becky replied, standing up to leave.

            “Good call, thanks for the advice Beck,” Meghan said. “Sorry you ended up in this mess.”

            “Oh no worries. It seems like a pretty exciting place to be! Good luck you two. Get some rest Morgan,” Becky said as she opened the door. The girls called their goodbyes as the door closed behind Becky.

            “Well that went well,” Meghan said, resting her head on the back of her chair.

            “Yeah, ok. That was a breeze,” Morgan replied sarcastically.

            “No really, it could have been so much worse. Thank god Ali showed up when she did!” Meghan protested.

            “I know right. Thank god she knew. That part could have been way worse. So what are we going to do about Talex?” Morgan asked.

            “I dunno, tell them I guess. But let’s see if we can wait until we get to Chattanooga,” Meghan replied. “You know, you really need to start pulling your weight in these conversations.”

            “No way! You found it and sucked me in. This is on you. You’re on your own!” Morgan retorted.

            “Ugh! Jerk!” Meghan exclaimed, pretending to throw her book at Morgan. Morgan rolled her eyes and returned to her iPad. “If you weren’t injured I’d kick your ass right now.”

            “No you wouldn’t. If I wasn’t injured, we’d be out drinking right now,” Morgan shot back.

            “True story kid, true story. Hurry up and heal would you?” Meghan replied with a laugh.

Chapter Text

            “Hey Becky, can I ask you something?” Meghan asked her new roommate as she finished unpacking her suitcase.

            “Sure, what’s up?” Becky asked, looking up over her laptop at Meghan.

            Meghan sat down on her bed and crinkled her nose nervously, “It’s about… you know.”

            “Ok,” Becky encouraged, closing her laptop.

            “Pinoe said we need to tell Tobin and Alex, but I’m not sure it’s a great idea,” Meghan admitted, fidgeting with the seam of her warm-ups.

            “Why not? What are you worried about?” Becky asked simply.

            “I’m not sure really. Every conversation has been super awkward. I don’t want anyone to freak out and at this point I kind of wish I’d never found it. But I’m worried how Tobin is going to take it. I feel like Alex is used to the spotlight, but it’s different with Tobin. She’s so private. I don’t want them to be in a position to be embarrassed about this,” Meghan replied quietly.

            “Hm, ok. So Tobin and Alex may freak out, that’s a really good point. But wouldn’t you rather they heard it from you than find out about it accidentally because someone who knows is ranting about it? You don’t know how either of them is going to take it. And there’s a chance at least one of them already knows. Ali did. This may not be as big of a secret as you think. A lot of our team may already know, but just haven’t talked about it.” Becky reasoned.

            “But if other people knew, how did we not hear about it already?” Meghan asked.

            Becky shrugged, “Don’t know, it was just a thought. Maybe since you guys are into fandom stuff it was a bigger deal to you. Or maybe the people that know were just trying to keep a lid on it so they didn’t have to be the ones awkwardly telling everybody. I get how telling Tobin and Alex is hard. Ash and Ali are already together and Hope and Kelley would both laugh it off, but Alex is married and Tobin is super private. I think you have to think about how big of a possibility it is that they’ll find out in an unfortunate way and be pissed that you didn’t tell them first.”

            Meghan groaned, “Ugh, good point. Why ya gotta be so smart Broon?”

            “Eh,” Becky shrugged, opening the lid of her laptop.

            Meghan scooted back to lean against the headboard of her bed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to text Morgan about her thoughts on the subject, but paused to find her own. If Tobin and Alex found out from Hope and Hope told them who told her first, Meghan would never hear the end of it. Even worse, if Kelley told them, god only knows how they would react because god only knows what Kelley would say. The travel day from Pittsburg to Chattanooga had been bad enough. Ashlyn’s constant glares, Hope’s omnipresent smirk, and snide comments from just about everyone who knew. It was only going to get worse from here and Meghan knew as the finder of the fandom, it was her duty to tell those who it would affect the most.

            Becky’s words did make her wonder if there were other teammates who secretly knew. So far Pinoe, Ali, and Carli knew before she found it. If she could go back in time, she would have picked up her breakfast and run swiftly out of the room as soon as Hope Solo sat in front of her. This was Hope’s fault really and now Meghan was the one paying the price.

            Meghan’s phone buzzed in her hand. We’re busted.

            Uh, what? Meghan text back.

            The captains have me. We are headed to your room. They know. Morgan text in response.

            “Shit!” Meghan exclaimed, frantically texting Morgan back.

            “What?” Becky inquired, looking up.

            A resigned knock came from the door. Meghan abandoned her response to Morgan and swiftly moved across the room to answer the door. Morgan rolled her eyes as the group entered and Meghan retreated back to her bed. Morgan sat down on the edge of Meghan’s bed and watched the three captains entered confidently, shutting the door behind them. Abby leaned on the edge of the dresser, looking slightly put out. Christie stood in front of the bathroom door, with her arms crossed in a motherly gesture. Carli stood in between them with her hands on her hips in a very annoyed Carli Lloyd stance.

            Becky looked quickly between the two camps. “Do I need to be here for this?” she asked calmly.

            “Nope,” Carli stated simply.

            “Cool. See you guys,” Becky said closing her laptop and sliding off the bed. She grabbed her card key and quickly exited the room without looking back.

            “Thanks for the backup Beck,” Meghan muttered.

            “So you guys know why we’re here, right?” Carli asked.

            “I have a pretty good idea,” Meghan replied. Morgan nodded her agreement and leaned back on her hands.

            “Good because this thing is a distraction and I need- we need you to shut it down,” Carli stated matter of factly.

            “How is it a distraction? We just won eight nil. And we didn’t even do this. Your bestie Hope did,” Meghan argued.

            “It won’t be Costa Rica forever Kling. We need to stay sharp. Hope wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that,” Carli replied. Meghan opened her mouth reply, but was interrupted.

            “Ok look ladies,” Christie said stepping forward. “We’re not here to bust you, we’re just here to find out what you know and see how you have been handling it. No one’s in trouble, we just want to talk. Carli’s right, it’s a big year and we just want to make sure this doesn’t become a thing.”

            “Yes, Cap,” Morgan and Meghan replied in unison, hanging their heads slightly.

            “What the hell? How’d you do that?” Carli asked, clearly expecting more of a fight from the duo.

            “Not my first rodeo kid,” Christy said calmly. Abby snorted and shook her head.

            “So what do you want us to tell you?” Morgan asked.

            “Let’s start with this, Pinoe tipped us off that you found out. She originally told the three of us when she found all of the fan stuff. We asked her to keep us in the loop if word ever got out. We just need to know what you found and who you’ve told. And if you are planning on telling anyone else,” Christie said, moving toward Becky’s bed. She sat down on the corner of the bed and looked at the girls expectantly. Carli scowled and crossed her arms. Abby closed her eyes and tilted her head up, apparently attempting to nap through this conversation.

            Meghan looked at Morgan for reassurance. Morgan nodded slightly, signaling for her to go ahead. Morgan was not about to jump into the fray. This was all Kling.

            Meghan nodded to herself and turned back to Christie, completely ignoring Carli and Abby. She felt like a kid in the principal’s office. She took a deep breath and decided on the short version, “A few weeks ago I came across some of our more, um, enthusiastic fans on a website called Tumblr. It’s a place where fans of all kinds of things go to post pictures and talk about stuff. I found out that our team has a pretty big following on that site and others like it.”

            Christie nodded encouragingly and Meghan chose her words carefully, “That site led me to another one that archives fanfiction. The fanfiction I found was a collection of about a thousand stories about our teammates.”

            Abby snorted again and Morgan shot her an annoyed look. Christie raised an eyebrow in her direction. Abby lifted her hands, “What? That was a very polite way of putting it.”

            “We all know what fanfiction is. Thanks Abby,” Christie chided. “Go on,” she said to Meghan warmly.

            “So then I showed Morgan and we investigated a little further,” Meghan said, barely keeping a straight face. Morgan snickered. Meghan kicked her in the thigh and continued in spite of Morgan’s protest of pain, “Our plan was not to tell anyone, but then someone had to draw attention to us at breakfast on our first day of camp.” Meghan and Morgan both glared at Abby.

            Soon the whole room was glaring at Abby. She realized and said, “What? You guys were being weird. I had to call you out.”

            “Yeah so then Hope pounced on our weakness and got it out of us. She told KO later and KO begged us to tell her everything. Press joined us mid conversation and Kelley may have freaked a little when we showed her what fanfiction was like,” Meghan explained.

            “Use the men’s,” Morgan muttered through a smirk. Meghan fought back a laugh.

            “Excuse me?” Carli asked.

            “Nothing,” they replied in unison. Meghan kicked Morgan again, but Morgan wisely leaned out of reach this time.

            Christie raised an eyebrow, but Meghan quickly continued, “That night Pinoe grabbed us and told us she knew. After the game Ashlyn came and banged down our door because apparently Hope can’t keep her trap shut. We called in Ali to calm her down. Turns out Ali already knew, but hadn’t told Ash. So we talked down Ash with Ali’s help. Becky was in the room when Ash barged in so she knows now too.”

            “Ok, is that it?” Christie asked.

            “Yeah, that’s it,” Meghan replied. Morgan nodded in agreement.

            “Is this what all that snickering on the bus from the airport was about?” Carli asked.

            “Yep. Turns out our goal keepers are a pain in the ass,” Meghan responded, glaring at Carli.

            “Don’t turn this on them, this is your fault,” Carli said emphatically.

            “No it’s not!” Morgan replied indignantly. “We knew weeks ago and never let it slip to anyone, including you, Dash teammate! Freaking Hope Solo hoodwinked us and now she’s the one spreading the word like wildfire!”

            “Hoodwinked you?” Abby laughed. Christie smirked, as if holding in her own laughter. “She hoodwinked you huh?”

            “Well she did something because all of a sudden we were spilling our guts,” Meghan agreed.

            “Mmhm, well she’s talented. I’ll give her that,” Abby replied.

            “So you’re saying that Hope is going around telling people? She wouldn’t do that!” Carli said, sticking up for her bestie.

            “Ok, well she’s not exactly going around telling people I don’t think. She told Kelley, but Kelley probably harassed her about it. And Ash said she found out from Hope, but that doesn’t mean Hope told her on purpose. She could have found out from Kelley and went to Hope for confirmation. We never really clarified that point,” Meghan admitted.

            “Ok, what do you guys think?” Christie asked, looking to Carli and Abby.

            Abby responded with a shrug and a noncommittal smirk. Meghan interpreted it as Abby not putting it past Hope to tell everyone. Carli shook her head and responded somewhat defiantly, “No way Hope would go around telling people. She knows that would cause problems and piss me off.”

            “But what if she really is up to something? Have you thought of that?” Morgan asked defiantly.

            “What could she be up to Morgan? I mean really? What could possibly be her motivation for telling everyone and making them come talk to you?” Carli asked, raising her hands in that gesture she made when she was complaining to the refs.

            Christie and Abby shared a look. Abby bit her lip and raised her eyes to the ceiling, considering Carli’s words. Her gaze settled back on Christie as Christie turned back to Meghan and Morgan. “Alright, so here’s the deal. You two are obviously not trying to spread this around so we appreciate that. If you can keep a lid on this, I think it’s probably the best for everyone. Chances are a few more people will find out, but if we can get out of this week without the whole team knowing, chances are it will calm down again before next month,” Christie told them.

            Morgan and Meghan shared a look. Meghan cleared her throat and said, “So, um, Pinoe thinks we should tell Tobin and Alex too, since there’s a lot on the internet about them.”

            “Hm,” Christie mused, nodding in thought. “Ok, well I get where Pinoe’s coming from. What are your thoughts?”

            “Well, we wanted to wait until after we got here, but I’m a little worried about how they’re going to take it honestly,” Meghan said.

            “I understand that,” Christie said reassuringly. “My advice though is go with your gut. If you feel like Tobin and Alex should know then it’s important for you to tell them. I trust you guys to make the right decision.”

            “Thanks Cap,” they replied in unison.

            “Do you guys practice that?” Abby asked, pushing her body away from the dresser in a clear attempt to leave.

            “No,” they replied together, while Carli answered, “Yes.”

            “Uh, ok. So are we good here? Can we go now?” Abby asked impatiently.

            “Yes, I do believe we are good here,” Christie replied, standing. “Good luck ladies. Please let us know if you do in fact tell Tobin and Alex or if anyone else finds out.”

            Morgan and Meghan watched as the captains moved toward the door. Abby trailed behind and as she reached the door said, “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up in a sec.” Christie nodded and closed the door behind her.

            Abby turned to face the Morgan and Meghan. They were wearing identical looks of wariness as Abby said, “Stay on your toes around Hope. I’ve known her a long time and she never does anything without a reason. What did Pinoe say?”

            “More or less the same thing. She thinks Hope’s up to something,” Meghan replied.

            “Pinoe has spent a lot of time with Hope. I’d listen to her. Be ready for anything over the next few days. It could be all a coincidence, but maybe not. Carli won’t believe it no matter how much evidence you show her so don’t try to get her involved. Let me know if something comes up. I’ll consult with Cap and we’ll go from there. Good luck ladies,” Abby replied.

            “Thanks Abby,” they replied.

            Abby shook her head and laughed, “You guys are dorks.” She waved goodbye and headed out the door.

            Morgan laid back on the bed and covered her face with her hands, “Awkward!” she muttered from beneath her hands.

            “Ugh!” Meghan agreed.

            “So in summary,” Morgan began, pulling her hands away from her face. “Carli blames us, Cap just wants to stay informed, and Abby thinks Pinoe is right.”

            “Yup, that’s what I got. So now we just have to decide about Tobs and Alex,” Meghan replied.

            “We should just do it. Then they know and we don’t have to wonder. I think it would be bad it they found out from KO or Ash. I’m almost surprised they haven’t yet,” Morgan stated.

            “I know right? Ok, yeah, you’re right. We should do it tonight after dinner,” Meghan said.

            “Do you think they have any idea how involved Talex shipping is?” Morgan asked, sitting up.

            “Uh, no. I don’t. Even if they have an inkling from Twitter or Instagram, I don’t think they know how deep the ‘Talex is real!’ goes. It’s serious business. Maybe that’s what makes me uneasy,” Meghan replied.

            “Nah, you haven’t wanted to tell anyone. Well, anyone except me obviously. But I think this one’s going to be tough. Syd will probably be out of our room after dinner. Want to use my room so we don’t bother Becky?” Morgan inquired.

            “No need. Talex is rooming together,” Meghan informed her.

            “Hm. Weird. Oh my god what if Talex is real?” Morgan asked as she sat up gingerly, her eyes full of mirth.

            “Don’t even. If you weren’t injured I’d smack you with this pillow,” Meghan replied, standing up. “Come on let’s go find Becky and kick her ass. I can’t believe she left us.”

            “Help me up?” Morgan asked as she scooted to the edge of the bed and held out her arms. Meghan obliged and pulled her up carefully. “You know there’s no way you could kick Becky’s ass right?”

            “I absolutely could! I’m a third-degree black belt thank you very much!” Meghan said indignantly as they walked to the door.

            “Yeah ok, sure, sure Kling. You could totally take her. Mmhm!” Morgan teased.

            “Shut up!” Meghan replied as they walked out the door.

            “You could take who?” Becky replied from her seat in the hall.

            “No one. Nobody. Not important,” Meghan replied quickly as Morgan laughed.

            “So I can come back in now?” Becky asked, slowly standing.

            “Yep, thanks for ditching us!” Morgan said as she moved out of the doorway.

            “Excuse me?” Becky said, meeting Morgan’s eyes.

            “Thanks for ditching us. You sure got out of there in a hurry,” Morgan said meeting Becky’s eyes.

            Becky smiled, “Yeah no way I was getting in the middle of that. That’s all you guys!”

            “Don’t remind us,” Meghan sighed as she led Morgan back to her room.

Chapter Text

            Meghan paused outside the hotel door. She looked to Morgan for support. Morgan impatiently crossed her arms and tilted her head. Meghan rolled her eyes and knocked. Tobin and Alex were expecting them. Meghan had texted Alex and asked if they could come talk with them after dinner. Alex didn’t appear the least bit suspicious when she had answered yes.

            Tobin opened the door with a smile, “Sup guys? Come on in, take a seat!”

            “Hey,” Meghan greeted Tobin and Alex with a nod. Morgan kept quiet, but offered them a smile in greeting. Meghan and Morgan each took a chair, while Tobin sat next to where Alex was texting on the bed.

            Alex dropped her phone and smiled at them, “Hey ladies.”

            “Hey, so how’s the knee?” Meghan asked.

            “It’s holding up,” Alex replied.

            “Sooooo,” Tobin smirked as she raised an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure you guys aren’t here to talk about busted body parts. So what’s really up? You here to finally tell us about all that Talex fanfiction you found?”

            “Tobin!” Alex scolded, as Meghan and Morgan shared a shocked look and some sputtering.

            “Whatever, that’s why they’re here isn’t it?” she said, looking at Alex with her hands up. Alex rolled her eyes in response. Tobin looked to Meghan and asked, “Isn’t it?”

            “Well yeah, but we didn’t know you knew!” Meghan exclaimed.

            “Well then this conversation will go a whole lot faster now won’t it?” Tobin asked, still smiling at herself.

            “Yeah, I guess so. Did Kelley tell you?” Morgan asked.

            “Of course she did. She ran right into my room and told us the night she found out. She was squealing about somebody writing about Hope slamming her up against a bathroom door and how they were third and we were second. It took forty minutes just to get her story straight,” Alex replied laughing.

            Morgan shook her head, “Freaking Kelley O’Hara!”

            “At least it wasn’t Hope this time,” Meghan responded.

            “Hope knows too?” Alex asked.

            “Yeah, she got it out of us first. It’s her fault word has gotten around. She told KO and Ash and now a bunch of people know, including you guys,” Meghan said.

            “Sounds like Hope. So why don’t you tell us what you came to tell us. We only know parts and most of those parts came from Kelley,” Alex replied.

            Meghan took a deep breath, “Ok, so I’m sure you know what Talex means right?”

            Alex nodded solemnly, while Tobin smiled and proudly answered, “It’s us right? Alex and me? We get it all the time.”

            “Yeah, so Talex is your ship name. When fans want to see two people get together, they give them a ship name. Other people have them too. I’m sure you’ve heard of Krashlyn,” Meghan explained.

            “The entire world has heard of Krashlyn,” Alex muttered.

            “So on the internet, there’s this site for people to blog stuff like pictures and videos. It’s called Tumblr. It’s mostly fans of stuff posting about the stuff they love. We found out that we have a bunch of fans on Tumblr that love us and post pictures and analysis and fanfiction. You guys know what fanfiction is?” Meghan asked.

            “Yep!” Tobin replied cheerily as Alex nodded and sighed.

            “Ok, so when there’s a bunch of really dedicated fans of something, the fans are referred to as a fandom. When there’s a fandom, there’s an extremely high chance that there will also be fanfiction,” Meghan continued.

            “It’s an internet rule,” Morgan interjected.

            “There are internet rules?” Tobin asked, excitedly.

            “Oh yeah, there’s like a thousand of them. One of them is ‘if it exists, there’s fanfiction about it,’” Morgan said.

            “Wow, who knew? You learn something new every day, eh Lex?” Tobin said, smacking Alex in the thigh with the back of her hand.

            Alex shook her head. “I’m so glad you are enjoying this,” she said sullenly.

            “Come on Lex, lighten up. It’s not that big of a deal,” Tobin told her.

            “Not that big of a deal? How can you say that? People are writing stories about us and posting them on the internet. And we get Talex comments on all of our tweets and Instagram posts. Why doesn’t this bug you? You hate people knowing anything about you!” Alex replied, turning to her. Meghan turned to Morgan and raised an eyebrow. Morgan replied with a half shrug and bit her lip in thought. Nothing about this conversation had been expected. They were content to just ride out what was turning into a Talex argument.

            “They still don’t know anything about me! Or any of us for that matter. I checked it out, it’s harmless. The stuff they post on Tumblr is all stuff we’ve posted ourselves or pictures taken of us that we knew about. There’s nothing revealing about us that isn’t already out there somewhere or that we didn’t say ourselves at some point,” Tobin countered.

            “Ok, fine, I looked up the Tumblr stuff too and you’re right, there’s nothing personal there. It’s just pictures and stuff, which is fine, whatever, but does no one care that I’m married?” Alex argued.

            Meghan and Morgan shared a look. This was the question that they hadn’t been able to reconcile through this whole thing. They were absolutely shipping their teammates. They both felt ok about Ali and Ash since they were together and shipping Hope and Kelley was just funny because neither of them seemed to care, but it felt different with Tobin and Alex.

            Meghan realized that Tobin and Alex were waiting for her to answer. She shifted in her chair and cleared her throat to buy herself a few more precious seconds. Finally she answered truthfully, “Well, yes and no I guess. There are definitely fans out there that respect and celebrate your relationship with Servando and see you and Tobin as friends. There are other people out there that are really, really passionate about you two being linked together romantically. In my experience, this happens a lot with real life shipped couples. Some people choose to ignore the couple’s real lives and construct their own. That doesn’t make it fair to either of you, but it’s out there. You do have to remember that there are a lot of fans who respect your personal lives, but like the story of your fictional selves getting together.”

            “Our fictional selves?” Tobin asked.

            “Yeah, so the people who are writing these fanfiction stories aren’t trying to write your real lives. They are using you and everybody else on this team as characters. They don’t really know us. They guess at what we’d say by what they know about us. We are just characters to them. So really, when they see you as a character, they don’t see you as being married all the time. Sometimes they use it as a plot device or just ignore it completely. They are basically just borrowing your name and a few of your more prominent characteristics,” Meghan explained.

            “Hm,” Tobin mused thoughtfully.

            Alex shook her head and continued, “But what if I don’t want to be a character? I love my husband and he’s really freaking hot! Why not write stories about us?”

            “Your husband is really freaking hot,” Morgan muttered. Everyone looked at Morgan, eyebrows raised in amusement. “What? He is! Just saying.”

            “See? Thank you,” Alex responded.

            “Eh,” Tobin and Meghan replied noncommittally.

            “Are you saying he’s not an attractive man?” Alex said, pursing her lips and scowling. Tobin laughed.

            “No, that’s not what I’m saying. He is, but my point is that people don’t care because so is Tobin,” Meghan responded quickly, not wanting to engage Alex in an argument about the hotness level of her husband.

            “I’m an attractive man? Why did no one tell me this?” Tobin exclaimed with mock offense.

            “No, god shut up. You’re cute and Alex is cute. Our whole fucking team is cute and people really just want you two to be cute together,” Meghan rushed to explain.

            “Cute? I went from being an attractive man to just cute? And how are you not taking offense to her calling you cute?” Tobin asked Alex teasingly. Alex shook her head and fought a smile.

            “Goddamn it Tobin! Oh my god, ok? You’re both hot, for crying out loud! Happy now?” Meghan cried, throwing up her hands and leaning back in her chair.

            Morgan laughed, “Oh great, you guys get to be hot and I’m still just cute. Thanks a lot Kling!”

            Meghan turned her head to scowl at Morgan and snarled, “I swear to god Morgan Brian, don’t you start with me!”

            “Ok, ok, everybody relax,” Alex said calmly, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “But really, why me and Tobin? What brought this on?”

            “Well, you guys act like a couple sometimes, so people pick up on that,” Meghan replied.

            “Mmmmhm,” Tobin murmured in Alex’s direction.

            Alex scoffed, “How so?”

            “Well according to Tumblr, you guys are always standing next to each other, touching shoulders or laughing or hugging. There are a lot of pictures of you hugging. That’s how these things happen,” Meghan responded.

            “You do hug me a lot,” Tobin teased.

            “Yes, because we are friends. Friends hug!” Alex argued.

            “Um, sure they do,” Morgan said sarcastically.

            “What? You guys don’t hug?” Alex asked.

            “We hug, but not like every five seconds, like you guys,” Morgan replied with a smirk.

            “Maybe you’re just a hugger,” Tobin said to Alex with a smirk of her own.

            “Whatever,” Alex muttered, shaking her head.

            “Ok, I have a great example! So you know how Kelley loves to snuggle with like the entire team? That’s why people ship her with Hope, because she nuzzles into Hope’s neck when she hugs her and people think it’s adorable. Then their minds start to whirl and before you know it, they ship it. Well Kelley hugs a lot of people, so people ship her with Hope and Press and both of you. Just because she has no concept of personal space,” Meghan explained.

            “So you’re saying that people want me to get with Tobin because I hug her a lot?” Alex asked, clarifying.

            “Well, that’s a really basic way of putting it, but yeah,” Meghan shrugged.

            “So if I stop hugging her, will they stop?” Alex asked hopefully.

            “Oh god no, once it’s started, it’s nearly impossible to stop,” Meghan informed her.

            “But if I start hugging Servando more, will people ship us too?” she asked thoughtfully.

            “I think there are people out there who already ship you guys, but it could create more shippers. It won’t help you calm down the Talex shippers though. They are a dedicated bunch,” Meghan told her. Morgan nodded in agreement.

            “So you’re saying it won’t go away?” Tobin asked, looking at Alex with concern.

            “No, not while you are playing on the same team anyway. I don’t know if you know this about yourselves, but you guys have a clear connection. You guys have great chemistry, on and off the field. Some people interpret that as romantic chemistry. That doesn’t mean it is romantic chemistry, it just means that people see your connection and make their own conclusions,” Meghan said.

            Tobin and Alex shared a look. Tobin tilted her head slightly and raised her eyebrows meaningfully. Alex shook her head in response. Tobin nodded as if emphasizing her point. Alex sighed and shook her head again. Tobin shrugged slightly and offered Alex a small smile. Alex tilted her head back in thought, sighed again, and finally nodded. “Ok, yeah,” she said to Tobin.

            Meghan and Morgan shared a look. They were both in awe of the silent conversation they had witnessed. It spoke volumes about why people shipped them, but Meghan started to wonder if the content of their conversation was more important. She was still surprised at the unanticipated role reversal, but maybe that was also a clue. She really hadn’t expected Alex to be the one most affected. Looking at the situation more critically, Meghan realized that it was in Tobin’s nature to be laid back and Alex to be more excitable, but the pieces just didn’t add up. There was something she was missing. By the look on Morgan’s face, she was feeling the same thing.

            Meghan cleared her throat, “So um, now that that’s done, is there anything else you want to know about what we found?”

            “Is there anything else to know?” Alex said, somewhat guarded.

            Meghan shook her head and replied, “No, that’s the gist. My honest advice is to ignore it. It lives mostly on Tumblr and on the site that archives the fanfiction. The people that reply to you with Talex comments are just really big fans, don’t forget that. They may be just a little… intense.”

            “Ok, you’re right. I shouldn’t take this personally. I don’t even know why it bothers me. Maybe I just really want everyone else to appreciate my hot husband as much as I do,” Alex said, smiling in jest.

            Her comment got a laugh from the room and Meghan responded, “There you go! That’s the spirit! We are very lucky that people spend their time on us. It’s pretty cool to think about.”

            “Hm, yeah, I never thought of it that way,” Morgan said, nodding in agreement.

            “It’s really ok, Lex,” Tobin said reassuringly, patting Alex’s knee.

            “Yeah, I know,” she said, smiling at Tobin. She turned back to Morgan and Meghan, “Thanks for coming and explaining all of this. When we found out from Kelley, I guess I was more confused than anything. I totally get it now. Thanks guys.”

            “You’re welcome. We better get going, Morgan has to get her back massaged before bed,” Meghan said, standing slowly.

            “Yeah, dude, how you feeling?” Tobin asked.

            Morgan winced as Meghan helped her up, “It’s stiff and it twinges, but it’s better than yesterday.”

            “Right on. You gonna be ready to play Wednesday?” Tobin asked.

            “No probably not, but who knows. It has a mind of its own,” Morgan said as they started toward the door. She turned back with a wince and asked, “Hey, how did you guys get a room together anyway? Dawn loves sticking random people together. How’d you swing this?”

            “No idea. Just good luck I guess. We had nothing to do with it,” Alex said with a shrug.

            “Hm. Well goodnight,” Morgan said, joining Meghan by the door.

            “Night ladies,” Alex called to them as Meghan opened the door.

            Meghan closed the door behind her and Morgan and let out a long slow breath. “Well that went…”

            “Interestingly?” Morgan supplied, as they walked down the hall.

            “Yeah,” Meghan agreed. “What do you think their conversation was about? Whatever they discussed had something to do with why Alex was so upset. Do you think they are O’Soloing it too?”

            “Kling, they can’t be O’Soloing it if they’re not O’Solo. Are you asking me if they are Talexing it?” Morgan corrected.

            “Yes, I’m asking if you think they are Talexing it,” Meghan confirmed.

            “No, I don’t think they are Talexing it. Alex loves Servando and Tobin’s not a homewrecker. But there’s something we’re missing. Do you think maybe they Talexed it in the past? Like before Servando? Or maybe while they were broken up or something?” Morgan contemplated.

            “Maybe, but like didn’t Alex meet Servando in college?” Meghan asked.

            “I think so. It sounds right. How long have Alex and Tobin known each other? Did you guys all play U-20 together?” Morgan asked.

            “Shit, yeah maybe. I get really confused about who was on which team. I’ve played with a lot of people,” Meghan replied with a shrug.

            “Seriously? How do you not know this?” Morgan asked in disbelief.

            “I don’t know. When I was playing at UNC, Tobin and I were also on the U-20 team for a while and then Tobin got called up to the senior team. I know I played with both of them before the senior team, but I can’t remember if we were all on the team together. No, I don’t think so. I think Tobin got called up like a month or two before Alex joined the U-20 team. God, this is so confusing,” Meghan said, exasperation evident in her voice.

            “Dude, don’t strain yourself. It doesn’t really matter. We can speculate all we want, but we are never going to know for sure. But I’m with you, that conversation meant something relevant to the two of them. There’s definitely something we don’t know,” Morgan responded calmly as they reached the elevator. She pushed the down button.

            “Good point,” Meghan said nodding. “Hey so do you think this is over now? Have we done all of our due diligence?”

            “We didn’t have to do any diligence in the first place. It was our choice, but yes, according to Pinoe’s guidance, we are done,” Morgan said as the elevator opened.

            “Thank god! Hey while you go get a massage, I’m going to tell Cap we told Alex and Tobin,” Meghan said.

            “Alright cool, see ya at breakfast,” Morgan said, stepping onto the elevator.

            “Wait, shouldn’t we hug? I’m not going to see you for like 12 whole hours!” Meghan said with a smile, grabbing the elevator door.

            “Thank god for that!” Morgan teased.

            “Oh shut up, you’ll miss me,” Meghan laughed, stepping back from the elevator.

            “Not likely!” Morgan yelled with a smile as the doors closed.

Chapter Text

            The team filed into the locker room grumbling about the weather delay. At this rate, the game may not be over until well into the night. Reports of lightning strikes within the perimeter had the officials delaying the game indefinitely. The team settled into their various corners as rain began to patter on the roof of the locker room.

            Meghan plopped down unceremoniously in the chair in front of her locker and sighed. Morgan sat inside her locker beside Meghan’s. She wedged herself as far back as she could, trying to support her aching back. Meghan turned in her chair to face her friend. She noticed Morgan’s wince and asked, “Hey you ok? You need another heat pad? Or some Cryoderm?”

            “Ugh, yes, no, I don’t know. Sitting up straight helps,” she replied.

            “I bet lying down would help too,” Meghan pointed out.

            “Yeah, I am so not lying down on this floor,” Morgan responded, raising an eyebrow.

            Meghan smiled, “Yeah I don’t blame you, but we probably have enough time for me to tie some random towels together and fashion you a hammock.”

            “Fashion me a hammock? Yeah right! I don’t trust anything you have or hypothetically have constructed,” Morgan snorted skeptically.

            Meghan scoffed, “How dare you! That table wasn’t meant to hold people!”

            “Yeah, ok. It wasn’t shoddily constructed at all. How many screws did you have left over after you put it together?” Morgan teased.

            “Shut up! Ikea gives you extra screws, everyone knows that!” Meghan argued.

            Their argument was interrupted quite abruptly by a roll of prewrap landing at Meghan’s feet. Her phone buzzed in her hand as she looked around the room to find the assailant.

            That was a warning shot! The next one is hitting home unless you explain to me why you didn’t tell me about the videos! The text was from Ashlyn. Meghan rolled her eyes and looked across the locker room to where Ash sat, jaw clenched. Ali sat next to her and offered Meghan a consolatory shrug.

            Meghan shook her head and responded, You didn’t ask! That’s your bad.

            Her reply was met with another roll of prewrap flying across the room. This time it was aimed at Meghan’s head. Luckily, Meghan saw it coming and dodged it effectively. Morgan sat up in her locker and asked, “What’s that about?”

            “Ash knows about YouTube,” Meghan responded, handing Morgan her phone.

            It buzzed again in Morgan’s hand, “Ash says that was her last warning shot. She also says that we should have told her about all the Tumblr stuff too.”

            “Yeah well, whatever,” Meghan replied, picking up the two rolls of prewrap. She tossed them across the room to Ali, who put them in her bag.

            “Let me handle this, you’re just going to piss off Ash,” Morgan said, fingers already texting back a response.

            Our bad Ash! You were just a little bit fired up the other night, so we figured we’d let Ali tell you, Morgan texted.

            “Shit!” Meghan exclaimed as a roll of athletic tape came flying toward Morgan. Meghan leaned over and swatted it away, “Dude! What did you say to her?”

            “Nothing! Hey nice save!” Morgan exclaimed. Meghan reached over and plucked her phone out of Morgan’s hand before she could do any more damage.

            Meghan read what Morgan wrote and shook her head, “Way to go Slick.”

            Ashlyn’s text response came before Meghan could apologize on Morgan’s behalf, That’s a bullshit response and you know it! I talked to Kyle and he told me. The King of the Internet is also on Tumblr so he had a lot to say about that and then he dropped the YouTube bomb. What the actual fuck Kling?

            Meghan began typing a response when a sock roll hit her in the arm. She looked up and yelled, “What the hell Harris? Those better be clean!” She picked up the sock roll and chucked it back at Ashlyn. She caught it with ease.

            Bullseye! Ashlyn texted.

            Meghan shook her head and responded Dude, it’s not our fault that your girlfriend didn’t tell you what you wanted to know. Did you even ask her? Or did you run right to her brother after you found out. If you did then it’s your own damn fault! You should have known better!

            Meghan looked up to see the response from Ash. She braced herself for another airborne assault. Ashlyn looked up from her phone in distain and reached into her bag for another projectile. Ali grabbed Ash’s phone and held it up so that she could read Meghan’s response. She then took the third roll of prewrap out of Ashlyn’s hand and murmured a few words with a significant nod toward Meghan and Morgan.

            Ashlyn argued back quietly, but adamantly. Ali leveled her with a look. Ash tilted her head back and sighed. Ali crossed her arms and waited. “Ugh, fine!” Ashlyn said, loud enough for her exclamation to reach Meghan and Morgan.

            Ash returned to her phone and her forced apology soon arrived on Meghan’s phone, Ali says I have to apologize because I called Kyle right away when we left your room, so she says you’re right and I’m wrong. So sorry my bad. But I’m still pissed you didn’t tell me when you had the chance. Because you had the chance, but then you decided to make me throw shit at you. So really, you should be apologizing to yourself.

            “Rude!” Meghan muttered, showing Morgan her phone. Morgan muttered in agreement as she read Ashlyn’s quasi-apology. Meghan retrieved the previously swatted athletic tape and rummaged around her bag for a pen. She wrote Apology not accepted jerk! and added a smiley face before chucking it back at Ashlyn, who again caught it easily.

            Ashlyn’s jaw clenched and Ali patted her knee, working extremely hard not to smile. Ash looked up at her and Ali’s reserve crumbled. She struggled to contain a giggle and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Ashlyn narrowed her eyes at her and shook her head. She turned back to her phone.

            Assholes, Meghan read as the text came through. She showed it to Morgan who huffed indignantly. Ali shot them an apologetic look on Ashlyn’s behalf and went about distracting Ashlyn before she could throw something else.

            Pinoe chuckled as she pulled up a chair next to Meghan. “Did Ash find something else?” she asked.

            “Yeah, Kyle told her about Tumblr and YouTube,” Meghan muttered quietly.

            “Mmm, yeah that’ll do it,” Pinoe replied.

            “Hey I thought this was over after we talked to Talex, what the hell?” Meghan asked. Morgan nodded in agreement.

            “I’m honestly not surprised about Ash. Kyle’s Kyle and sometimes I honestly wonder which Krieger Ash loves more,” Pinoe replied. Meghan and Morgan gave a non-committal shrug. Pinoe looked around the room and smiled, “So you figure out what Hope’s up to yet?”

            Meghan leaned forward in her chair and stole a glance in the keeper’s direction. She was taking selfies with Carli in front of her locker. They were wearing matching pouty faces. “No idea, do you know?” Meghan responded.

            “Not yet, but I’m close. I’ll figure it out. She’ll give herself away sooner or later,” Pinoe replied.

            “Hey, Pinoe?” Morgan asked. Pinoe turned to her and raised her eyebrows. “Um, do you think any of the ships besides Krashlyn are real?”

            “Hm,” Pinoe paused. She smiled and replied, “Honestly, I’ve always thought something may have happened between Tobin and Alex. There was this one summer where Alex and Servando were sorta of broken up, so maybe. But Hope and KO? Not really. I mean, anything’s possible when it comes to KO, but I think it’s just KO’s lack of personal space bubble.”

            “True story,” Meghan said, nodding in agreement. “Hey maybe I’ll go talk to Hope and see if I can get anything else out of her.”

            “Good luck to you,” Pinoe said as Meghan got up.

            Meghan walked calmly toward Hope’s locker, noticing that Carli had abandoned her to her phone. Hope barely looked up as Meghan sat in her locker. “Hey Kling,” Hope greeted as she finished typing. “Want to take a sad face selfie with me so I can post it on Instagram?”

            Meghan smiled gamely and replied, “Sure!” She and Hope made sad faces while Hope snapped the picture. She showed Meghan and they laughed. Meghan said, “Wow, we look really pathetic, that’s a good one!”

            “Yeah we do!” Hope said smiling. “So what’s up Meghan?”

            “Oh you know, not much. Just thought I’d come over and ask you why you are going around telling everyone about fanfiction,” Meghan responded, eyebrows raised.

            “Um, what?” Hope asked, eyebrows knit in confusion.

            “You weaseled our secret out of us and now half the team knows. Everyone is saying you told them,” Meghan said in an accusatory whisper.

            “Wait, hold on. Who told you I told them?” Hope asked, keeping her voice low and leaning toward Meghan.

            “Kelley and Ash and…” Meghan trailed off. She scrunched her eyebrows together in thought, “Actually just Kelley and Ash.”

            “Mm, Kelley and Ash. Well I can tell you this, in spite of my threat to tell everyone, I actually didn’t seek anyone out. Kelley saw us talking and immediately harassed me about it. She wouldn’t let it go until I had told her everything and then she had to know more, so I heard she went to you guys. Then she told Ash and Ash came to me for confirmation. I told her just enough to answer her question and then she said she was going to hunt you down to find out why you didn’t tell her in the first place. I have talked to no one else about this!” Hope said emphatically.

            “Oh, um, well that makes a lot of sense actually,” Meghan admitted.

            “You know who you should be blaming right? KO. Because this all comes back to her. I was teasing you guys about telling everyone. I mean, what would be my motivation? What good would it do? Plus I would never hear the end of it from Carli,” Hope said convincingly.

            “Yeah, those are good points. Kell basically blabbed to everyone she could find,” Meghan agreed.

            “See? Look, don’t be too hard on the kid. You know she can’t help herself. I don’t think she did it on purpose, she’s just… spirited,” Hope said with an adoring smile toward the defender across the room. “Do you really think I would go around telling everybody about this?”

            “No, well maybe,” Meghan admitted. Hope looked at her with a partially raised eyebrow. “I mean, you’re right, I don’t know what would be in it for you. It’s just that Pinoe-“

            “Pinoe said what? This is coming from her isn’t it?” Hope interrupted.

            “Uh,” Meghan stalled. She gulped and nodded.

            “Of course it is. Look, I’ve known Megan for a long time and she loves doing shit like this. Stirring the pot and then watching the show. So what did she tell you?” Hope asked.

            “Um, that maybe you were up to something?” Meghan muttered.

            “And you believed her? Ok, obviously you believed her, but why? What could I possibly be up to?” Hope asked.

            “Well yeah, she was pretty convincing. She just told us that we needed to be on the alert because if you were telling people, you were probably up to something,” Meghan responded, avoiding Hope’s gaze.

            “Did it cross your mind that maybe she told you this because she’s the one who’s up to something?” Hope asked quietly.

            Meghan bit her lip and considered Hope’s question. She met the keeper’s steely blue eyes and smiled, “You’ve got a point.”

            “Unfortunately, and now you and Morgan seem to be caught in some kind of a game. I apologize for any trouble I may have caused by making you guys tell me. You were just so suspicious that morning and my curiosity got the better of me. I’m sorry,” Hope said earnestly.

            “Yeah, well I’m sorry for accusing you of telling everybody,” Meghan apologized.

            “So are we cool?” Hope asked, eyebrows raised hopefully.

            “Yep, we’re cool,” Meghan said, offering her fist for Hope to pound. Hope met her fist with a smile. Meghan smiled back and returned to her locker, where Morgan waited anxiously.

            “Um, so how’d it go?” Morgan asked anxiously as Meghan plopped back down in her chair.

            “Well,” Meghan said, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. “Hope said she only told KO because she was harassed and that KO actually told Ash and then Ash came to her for confirmation before coming to us. She pointed out that Pinoe enjoys stirring the pot and that maybe Pinoe’s the one who has been driving this whole thing.”

            Morgan leaned forward out of the locker and gaped at Meghan, “Oh my god, we didn’t think of that! It makes sense when you think about it. Pinoe’s been involved in this as much as anyone else. This could all be coming from her.”

            “Yeah, but to what end? Hope herself pointed out that she had nothing to gain from spreading the word, but neither does Pinoe. I guess we just have to decide which one wants to rile everyone up more. My money’s on Pinoe if this is just a game,” Meghan replied quietly.

            Morgan nodded, “Yep, Pinoe loves to mess with everybody and she found out about it all a while ago. Maybe she saw this as the perfect opportunity to have a little fun at our expense.”

            “Yeah, who knows at this point? Hope made a really convincing case, but everyone has warned us to watch out for her. And everything she said about Pinoe could be true. So what now?” Meghan asked, hands raised in question.

            “No idea. Maybe lay low? See if we can ride out the next 24 hours and hope it goes away by next month?” Morgan offered.

            “I hope this is over by next month. I don’t know how much more if this I can take,” Meghan admitted.

            “You and me both, dude. You and me both,” Morgan agreed, leaning back in her locker and pulling out her phone.

            Meghan took a moment to look around the locker room. They had had conversations with over half of their teammates about the national team fandom, but some were still in the dark as far as she knew. If it was up to her, she intended to keep it that way. This week had been excruciating and awkward and embarrassing at times. She wanted nothing more than to meet up again next month with all of this behind them.

            She thought about what had possessed people to care this much about her and her teammates. Surely theirs was a great story full of overcoming adversity and retribution. And they had won, everyone loves a winner. But it was kind of amazing that people cared about their personal lives, even if some of the fans were a little too exuberant.

            She watched Ali and Ash talk quietly in the corner. Ash was teasing Ali about something and Ali’s responding smile was full of love and adoration. It was easy to understand why everyone wanted to see them together. She looked next to Tobin and Alex, both on their phones, but sitting so comfortably together that they seemed like they had known each other their whole lives. Hope’s laugh caught her attention and she turned to see Kelley sitting next to Hope, showing her something on her phone. They were leaning into each other, talking conspiratorially, and smiling in shared amusement. It was easy to see why people shipped all three couples. Meghan smiled at how lucky she was that she got to see these private moments between her teammates and that she got to share in their happiness.

            “Hey Moe,” Meghan said, nudging the younger player with her foot.

            “What?” Morgan said, looking up from her phone.

            “We’re pretty damn lucky you know that?” Meghan said smiling.

            “Random, but true. We are pretty damn lucky,” Morgan confirmed shaking her head at her friend.

            “Yep, pretty damn lucky,” Meghan said again, leaning back in her chair and smiling at her teammates.

Chapter Text

            Meghan came out of the bathroom feeling like a new person. With the rain delay, the game had lasted well into the night. They had gotten back late after signing autographs for the rain soaked crowd. She had waited until getting back to the hotel room to shower so that she could slip into bed afterwards, finally dry after hours in the rain.

            Becky was reading in bed when she emerged. She looked up from her book and asked, “Ready for bed?”

            “I feel like I was born ready at this point,” Meghan responded.

            Becky smiled and closed her book. She reached for the light just as Meghan’s phone buzzed angrily on the bed. “You’re phone seems to have a lot to say. It went off a few times while you were in the shower,” Becky told her.

            “Of course it did,” Meghan grumbled. “Why can’t people respect my bedtime?”

            She read the string of texts from Morgan.

            DUDE! We need to chat. Right now!

            Dude where are you! This is urgent!!! 911!!

            I swear to god Kling if you are sleeping I’m going to come over there and drag you out of bed. TEXT ME BACK RIGHT NOW!!!!

            MEGHAN KLINGENBERG!!!! DON’T MAKE ME CALL YOU!!!!

            Meghan sighed loudly and replied, JFC I was in the shower. Keep your pants on. What is it?

            Morgan replied immediately, I found something peculiar. I need to see you in the lobby ASAP.

            “Are you shitting me?” Meghan muttered as she typed her response. Are you shitting me? Can’t you just come here?

            NO! Get down here now! Tell no one! Morgan responded.

            “That sounds exciting,” Becky commented.

            “It’s just Morgan, she’s having an existential crisis. The Cryoderm is going to her head,” Meghan responded, pulling some flip flops out of her bag.

            She donned a hoodie as she texted Morgan back. Omg fine. See you in a minute. Be forewarned, I might smack you.

            It’ll be worth it, Morgan responded.

            Meghan turned to Becky as she picked up her room key. “I’ll be back. Don’t wait up. I’m going to freaking kill that kid,” she told her fellow defender.

            “Night,” Becky said with a wave. Meghan quietly swore at Morgan the entire elevator ride to the lobby.

            When the doors opened, she found Morgan waiting impatiently. “What the f-“ Meghan started before Morgan interrupted her.

            “Shhhhh! Don’t say anything. Just come on,” Morgan told her, grabbing her by the arm. Meghan allowed herself to be led to a couch in the corner of the lobby.

            “Ok, what the hell Moe? Couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow?” Meghan asked, her voice laced with exhaustion.

            “No actually because everyone is leaving tomorrow morning and we need to figure this out now,” Morgan said mysteriously, handing Meghan her iPad.

            Meghan glanced down to see her web browser open to Archive of Our Own. “You’ve lost your goddamn mind Morgan Brian. Bringing me all the way down here to read fanfiction. I am actually going to kick your ass,” Meghan threatened.

            “Just read it ok. Just read it and tell me I’m not crazy,” Morgan pleaded.

            “Oh my god fine. Since I’m already down here, I will appease you,” Meghan said, leaning back into the couch. Morgan started to bite at her thumbnail nervously. Meghan rolled her eyes and began to read. The story was an O’Solo one shot about Kelley challenging Hope to a PK contest with Hope kicking and Kelley in goal. She laughed at the role reversals, but something tickled her memory. When she finished she turned to Morgan and asked, “So? Why did I have to read this?”

            “Meghan this happened,” Morgan said in a whisper.

            “Did it?” Meghan asked, exhaustion making it hard to access her memory. “When?”

            “At one of our camps this spring. I lost five bucks to you, don’t you remember. We dared Kelley to challenge Hope and then you took bets on who would win. I think you made like 30 bucks,” Morgan stated quietly. She looked around the lobby suspiciously, but no other teammates were in sight.

            “So? Ok, I vaguely remember this, but didn’t half the team like record it on their phones? This totally could have gotten out somehow,” Meghan admitted, handing the iPad back to Morgan.

            “Yeah, that’s what I thought too, but there’s more,” Morgan replied, touching the screen and then handing it back to Meghan. Meghan sighed and accepted the iPad back. The next story was about Ali and Ashlyn at breakfast. Ashlyn was stealing Ali’s toast and Ali caught her.

            Meghan looked up skeptically when she finished and asked, “I suppose you are going to say that this happened too?”

            “Yes and I know because I was sitting across from Ali and Ash,” Morgan said emphatically. “And you were there. The story says you were there. You handed Ali her phone, I remember. You were her roommate!”

            Meghan closed her eyes and took a breath, trying to remember. It seemed familiar, but she wasn’t convinced, “I don’t know Moe, I’ve been Ali’s roommate a few times this year. She forgets her phone. That’s not a secret.”

            “Dude! Come on! How crappy is your memory? Have you never heard Ali threaten the ‘Toast Bandit’ at breakfast?” Morgan prompted.

            “Sure, but that totally could have gotten out too. I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me,” Meghan said, stifling a yawn.

            “Jesus Kling, you’re not 80, wake up,” Morgan grumbled as she grabbed the iPad back. She scrolled for a bit and then handed the iPad back. “We’re both in this one. If this doesn’t do it, I’m giving up.”

            Meghan shrugged and took the iPad from Moe’s outstretched hand. She skimmed the beginning and then looked up at Morgan with a raised eyebrow. Morgan nodded in triumph and motioned for her to keep reading. Meghan’s face wrinkled in concentration and Morgan could plainly see the wheels turning. The story was about Tobin and Alex and a game of bullshit. One that she and Morgan had both participated in.

            When Meghan finished, she set the iPad on her lap and put her hand over her mouth in thought. She looked off in the distance, obviously trying to access a memory. She finally locked eyes with Morgan and said, “Ok, this happened. This totally happened. I will never forget your bet with Kelley and her having to jump in the pool. And Alex owned Tobin’s ass that night.”

            “Yep!” Morgan replied, eyes wide with excitement.

            “So you’re telling me that the person who wrote these stories had to be there during all of these events. And the only people at these events are on our team, so someone on our team wrote this,” Meghan said, allowing the pieces to fall into place as she talked.

            Morgan practically bounced off of the couch in excitement as she grabbed Meghan by the shoulders and said, “Yes! This is what I’m saying! I’m saying someone on our team wrote this and posted it.”

            “So someone on our team is writing fanfiction about our teammates,” Meghan said, clearly trying to wrap her head around this.

            “Yes!” Morgan said, letting go of Meghan’s shoulders. “But I’m not sure it can be called fanfiction if it’s real. I mean everyone sees it as fanfiction, but it’s not because it’s not fiction. So what does that make it?” Morgan wondered.

            “Uh, no idea. It’s too late to try to figure that out. Plus it doesn’t matter anyway. Do you have any idea who it is?” Meghan asked.

            “Yes,” Morgan replied calmly.

            “And?” Meghan prompted, smacking Morgan on the leg for not immediately coming out with it.

            “Yeah, you gotta earn it, but really I want to see if you come to the same conclusion,” Morgan said, patting Meghan calmly on the leg.

            “Ok fine, I’ll bite,” Meghan relented.

            “Ok, first, there were seven people at the card game that night. The seventh person doesn’t appear in the story,” Morgan stated.

            “Ok,” Meghan said trying to remember who else was at the card game.

            “Second, it was mostly defenders the day Kelley beat Hope at PKs,” Morgan said, ticking off the facts with her fingers. “Lastly, look at the name of the writer.”

            Meghan picked up the iPad with a frown and scrolled to the top of the Talex story. The writer’s name sat there like a beacon in the night. “Nerdsquadcaptain,” Meghan read aloud. As the name escaped her lips, the realization woke up the sleepy corners of her mind. “Oh my god it’s Becky!” she practically shouted.

            “SHHHHH!” Morgan warned, slamming her hand over Meghan’s mouth before she could do any more damage. Meghan’s eyes went wide and Morgan removed her hand. “Yes! It’s Becky! All signs point to Becky! She was at the PK shootout, she sits with us at breakfast, and she was at the card game! And the Nerd Squad always says she’s their nerdy leader!”

            “Oh. My. God!” Meghan said, still reeling from the reveal.

            “I know right?!?!” Morgan hissed at her. “That’s why you had to come down here! She’s your roommate!”

            “So, let’s go talk to my roommate!” Meghan said.

            “What? No! Nononononono. We are not going to go confront Becky!” Morgan said, a twinge of fear in her eyes.

            “Why not? What the hell did you bring me down here for then?” Meghan asked, annoyance clear in her voice.

            “Because I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. And it’d be harder to get you out of the room tomorrow as everyone is packing and leaving,” Morgan responded.

            “Well I’m going to go ask her about it. If she really is Nerdsquadcaptain, it means she knew all along and didn’t tell us. And it means she’s writing fanfiction about our teammates!” Meghan stated emphatically, rising from the couch.

            “Not fanfiction. Fan non-fiction? Just non-fiction? It’s more like a blog,” Morgan mused, also rising.

            “Come on, we’re going. Broon has some explaining to do!” Meghan said, dragging Morgan to the elevators.

            Morgan argued with Meghan all the way back to her room. Morgan’s biggest point was that if Becky wanted them to know, she would have told them. Meghan’s counterpoint was that she didn’t care because Becky had hung them out to dry, twice.

            “That’s why she had that weird look on her face when we were dealing with Ash and why she busted out of the room so quickly when Carli had her death stare going. This is exactly why we shouldn’t confront her,” Morgan reasoned.

            “Morgan, as your elder I’m telling you to shut up because we are doing this. If you don’t like it, scram!” Meghan announced testily.

            Morgan huffed and replied, “Ugh, fine. Stupid curiosity.”

            Meghan nodded and slipped her room key into the slot. She opened the door to Becky still reading in bed. Becky looked up from her book and said, “Well that was a quick existential crisis.”

            “A what? What did you tell her?” Morgan said as they entered the room.

            “Not important,” Meghan muttered, stepping to the end of Becky’s bed. She put her hands on her hips and said, “Rebecca Sauerbrunn, are you Nerdsquadcaptain?”

            “Um, what?” Becky said, shutting her book.

            “Are you the writer Nerdsquadcaptain who has been posting one shots about our team on AO3?” Meghan asked again.

            Becky’s eyes widen involuntarily and then she set her jaw. She looked between Meghan and Morgan carefully before taking a deep breath. “I can explain-“ she started.

            “I KNEW IT!” shouted Morgan, who jumped in triumph, then yelped in pain and grabbed her back.

            “Oh my god, go sit down before you hurt yourself more!” Meghan ordered. Morgan grumbled and took a seat in one of the hotel chairs. Meghan plopped herself down on her bed and tilted her head toward Becky, “Not only did you know, but you’ve been writing fic. This explanation oughtta be good.”

            “Alright look, I’d seen the Tumblr stuff before, but hadn’t paid that much attention. Ali called me when Kyle found the fic. She wanted to talk about it with someone who could tell her more about what it was and what it meant. We decided together not to tell Ash or anyone else, although now it seems that others had already found out,” Becky explained calmly.

            “So when you were sitting in that room with Ali, you both knew that you knew and no one decided to say anything?” Meghan prompted.

            “Yeah you saw Ash. Telling you guys that I knew wouldn’t have changed anything. By the time they were gone, what was I supposed to say, ‘Just kidding guys, I totally knew?’ It’s not my fault you assumed I didn’t know,” Becky retorted.

            “She’s got a point,” Morgan interjected.

            Meghan shot Morgan a look and said, “Ok fine. But what about the fic you’re writing?”

            “It’s not really fic is it?” Becky asked, tilting her head.

            “See?” Morgan asked, waving in Becky’s direction. Meghan waved for her to shut up.

            “Ok, so I may write fic for other fandoms and I may have let that slip to Ali while trying to assure her that fanfic writers are not creepy assholes. We may have discussed the possibility of me putting some of their cuter interactions on AO3 so that Ali could have some type of input into what is out there about them,” Becky said with a shrug.

            “Hypothetically?” Meghan replied sarcastically.

            “Ok look, I don’t have to answer to you guys. I will admit that I am Nerdsquadcaptain, but I got permission before I started writing about everyone,” Becky responded, shooting Meghan a withering look.

            Meghan didn’t back down from Becky’s glare and asked, “What do you mean permission? We had to explain fanfiction to half of the people we talked to.”

            “It started as Ali’s idea, so I went with it. She gave me permission to write stories about her and Ash, as long as I ran them by her first. She said she’d deal with Ash if she ever found out. I’ve been toying with writing a blog for a while and when Ali brought this up, that’s the angle I decided to go with. I got permission from just about everyone on the team to write about them on my blog,” Becky explained.

            “Oh yeah! I totally remember that!” Morgan said.

            “But this isn’t a blog Becky, it’s fanfiction,” Meghan pointed out.

            “But it’s not though. It’s all things that have really happened. Of course I took some liberties, but for the most part everything I wrote is true. It’s totally like a blog,” Becky argued.

            “A blog about the relationships of our teammates?” Meghan asked snarkily.

            “No! I mean, yes that’s one interpretation. But if you look beyond your little shipper lens, you will see that it’s a blog about the chemistry of our team and our friendships. There’s no making out or anything remotely sexual about what I’ve written. I promised Ali I wouldn’t write about any Krashlyn PDA. Since no one else on the team is together, I’m basically writing behind the scenes stories about how awesome our team is,” Becky reasoned.

            “Hm,” Morgan muttered. “She’s got a point.”

            “Look, if you don’t like it, I’ll take it down. Besides you guys, only Ali knows it’s me. How did you figure it out anyway?” Becky inquired.

            “Morgan?” Meghan prompted.

            “Nerdsquadcaptain kind of gave it away. And you didn’t write yourself into any of the stories, even though you were there. The Talex story with the card game was the biggest clue,” Morgan explained.

            “Hm, I just figured it would be easier to leave myself out of it, but I guess that’s a pretty big giveaway,” Becky mused.

            “But why AO3 and not, I don’t know, an actual blog?” Meghan asked, not ready to let this go.

            “Ali asked where it would get the most readership and I wanted to be anonymous. I couldn’t do that with a blog per se, so AO3 was the easy choice,” Becky replied. “Do you really want me to take it down?”

            “No!” Morgan exclaimed. Meghan shot her a speculative look. Morgan returned it with a shake of her head and emphatically said, “No! It’s good. And it’s not hurting anyone. And I want her to write more.”

            “Oh my god, stop fangirling over Becky,” Meghan said, rolling her eyes.

            “Hey now!” Becky exclaimed.

            “No seriously Kling, you read it, it’s completely harmless. It’s totally just a blog, but on AO3. Becky’s a good writer and we should be supporting her. I think as long as she keeps putting up stories like the ones she’s already put up, I don’t see the problem with it,” Morgan stated, crossing her arms.

            “Thank you Morgan,” Becky said, nodding at the younger player.

            “You are very welcome Becky. I look forward to reading more of your work,” Morgan said with a return nod.

            “God, get a room you two,” Meghan muttered.

            “Come on dude! You have to admit that her stories gave you the feels,” Morgan teased. “Especially the O’Solo one!”

            “Dude I like skimmed them because someone was being ridiculous in the lobby. But yes, the one about Kell challenging Hope to a PK contest was pretty funny. Even if I did live through it,” Meghan admitted.

            “See? Who doesn’t love O’Solo?” Morgan asked, shooting Meghan a wide smile.

            “I mean who doesn’t love O’Solo?” Becky teased.

            “Even O’Solo loves O’Solo,” Meghan sighed. “Ok, but for real, keep the stories up. They aren’t hurting anyone. But you better write us favorably.”

            Becky smiled and nodded. “I can do that,” she replied.

            “I still haven’t forgiven you for ditching us with Cap and company,” Meghan grumbled.

            “Well you’re going to have to get over it because there’s literally no way I was staying for that chat. Plus it would have been more trouble than it’s worth. Can you guys do me a favor and just keep this between us?” Becky asked.

            “Well we’ll try, but you’ve seen how well that’s worked out for us so far,” Morgan responded sarcastically.

            “Then it’s a good thing we’re all going home tomorrow isn’t it!” Becky said with a smile.

            “Yeah no kidding. I’m so over being hunted down by angry shippees,” Meghan said, scooting off her bed and standing up. “Come on Morgan, I’m taking you back to your room so I can finally go to bed.”

            “Fine,” Morgan said, standing gingerly. “Oh hey Becky, um, if you ever run out of things to write about let me know. Or you know, if you want someone to read something before you post it, I’d be happy to help.”

            Becky laughed, “Ok Moe, thank you. Goodnight!”

            “Night,” Morgan said, following Meghan out of the room.

            “God, quit sucking up to your favorite fanfiction writer,” Meghan said as they started down the hall to Morgan’s room.

            “She’s good, but she’s not my favorite. There’s that one author that only writes angsty O’Solo and makes me cry all the time. I think she’s my favorite,” Morgan replied.

            “Oh my god, I was kidding!” Meghan exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

            “Whatever, have you read Heartbeat yet because it’s excellent,” Morgan chastised.

            “Yeah I started it, but angst gives me hives,” Meghan replied seriously.

            “Shut up!” Morgan responded, whacking her on the arm. “Hey what time do we leave for the airport?”

            “Um, 10:30 so be ready. Hopefully we won’t run into anyone else who has questions about fanfiction,” Meghan told her.

            “Who else would want to know?” Morgan asked. Meghan shot her an eyebrow in response. “Ok point taken. We should be in the clear though. All the couples are amusing themselves tonight.”

            “Wait, what?” Meghan said, stopping outside of Morgan’s room.

            “Ash got Whit to switch with her so she could get it on with Ali and Talex and O’Solo got put together. How did you now know this?” Morgan asked her, leaning up against the wall.

            “Talex and O’Solo got put together? And Whit got put with Ali so Ash could easily switch with her? That’s weird. What are the chances?” Meghan replied.

            Morgan shrugged and winced. “I don’t know. Coincidence I guess,” she said.

            “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, fingers crossed for a quiet morning and then it’s back to the Lone Star State!” Meghan said, crossing her fingers on both hands.

            “Yeehaw!” Morgan said smiling. She pushed herself off of the wall and pulled her room key out of her pocket. “Hey do me a favor, read the rest of Becky’s stuff. It’s super cute. And then read Heartbeat so we can discuss it on the plane tomorrow. But don’t start Litost yet, you’re not ready for that.”

            “Ok boss. Any other recommendations?” Meghan said sarcastically.

            “I know you are being sarcastic Meghan Klingenberg, but since you asked, yes, I do. Go read There She Is and we can discuss that too.” Morgan responded, sticking her key into the door.

            “Aye aye shipper captain!” Meghan responded with a salute.

            Morgan responded with an eye roll, “You want me to text you a list?”

            “No! Go to bed! Goodnight Moe,” Meghan said, starting down the hall.

            “Goodnight Kling!” Morgan called after her as she entered her room.

Chapter Text

            “Are you actually still mad about this stupid fanfic crap?” Tobin asked her roommate as she plopped down on the bed.

            “No,” Alex responded, attention still firmly and studiously on her phone.

            “Lex?” Tobin prodded.

            “What?” Alex said, side eyeing her friend as she continued typing on her phone.

            “Seriously,” Tobin raised an eyebrow.

            “Ok fine,” Alex relented, tossing her phone on the bed. “Yes, I’m still annoyed ok?”

            “Why?” Tobin asked in response.

            Alex shot her a look and Tobin shrugged in reply. Alex chose her words carefully when she said, “Why am I not allowed to be still pissed off about this? I think it really sucks that this goes on and nobody seems to take it seriously.”

            “My question for you is: why are you taking it so seriously? You usually just brush this shit off,” Tobin pointed out.

            Alex paused and looked at her phone. She wouldn’t meet Tobin’s eyes when she responded, “You know why.”

            “I do,” Tobin replied in agreement. When Tobin didn’t elaborate, Alex looked over to see her waiting expectantly. Alex silently begged her to let it go with a pleading look. Tobin’s responding head shake was resolute. Alex lifted her eyebrows to add an air of pathetic begging to her case. Tobin replied with an eye roll and waited her out.

            “Come on Tobin,” Alex breathed out with a sigh.

            “No come on. Alex, you are upset about this for reasons that we both know, but you’re not going to get over it until you get it out. You know that,” Tobin answered.

            “I’m not going to get over this. Why can’t people just leave us alone?” Alex sighed, leaning against the headboard of the hotel bed, her hands moving to the top of her head.

            Tobin took a deep breath before answering, “You can’t be upset because we have fans. You are totally allowed to be upset if they are harassing you with the Talex comments, but to be honest Ali and Ash get it like five times as bad as we do.”

            “Yeah, but…” Alex trailed off.

            “Lex, you know this is happening because they see us. They see our friendship. They see our chemistry. They see us,” Tobin replied quietly, sitting up to face her best friend.

            “Tobin that’s… that was. It’s ours ok? I just want it to be ours,” Alex admitted, looking over at Tobin. Tobin offered her a small smile and a nod. Alex let loose a slow breath and closed her eyes. “What happened happened and even though that was a long time ago, I’m not going to pretend like it didn’t. You know that. But that’s ours. It’s no one else’s and I guess I just want to keep it that way.”

            “No one is taking that from us Lex, but it’s in the past,” Tobin responded. She took a breath and continued, “But yeah, you’re right, it happened. It’s what makes us work so well together. We have chemistry and people see that. I’m not sure there is anything we can do about that.”

            “So you’re saying that I need to just get the hell over it because it’s not going anywhere?” Alex asked, her voice challenging.

            “Basically, yeah,” Tobin replied softly.

            “Ugh!” Alex groaned, throwing a pillow at Tobin. Tobin caught it and put it behind her back. “I can’t believe this doesn’t bug you and it’s driving me crazy!”

            “I can. Only I know what my life it like and I honestly think it’s kind of amusing to watch all this speculation. Does it suck sometimes? Yeah, but I know that my real story is so much better than anything some rando could make up,” Tobin said simply.

            Alex studied her best friend for a moment. She knew Tobin was right, but she just wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “I get it, but I’m still angry,” she replied.

            “And you’re allowed to be,” Tobin answered.

            “And I’m eventually going to have to get over it?” Alex asked.

            “Yeah, unless you want to be all angry and fanless,” Tobin responded, nonchalantly.

            Alex laughed, “Ok, you’re right. Eventually I’m sure I’ll get over it.”

            “That’s the spirit! Want to read some fan fiction?” Tobin teased.

            “No!” Alex exclaimed, throwing her last pillow at a laughing Tobin, who plucked it out of the air easily.

            “Now you’re pillowless! Sucks for you Morgan!” Tobin taunted. Alex swiftly pounced on Tobin’s bed and retrieved her two pillows from Tobin, who barely put up a fight.

            “Isn’t it past your bedtime?” Alex asked, putting the pillows back on her bed and pulling back the covers.

            “Nope! I’m staying up late tonight,” Tobin replied, stifling an unfortunately timed yawn.

            “Sure you are,” Alex laughed and she settled into bed. “Twenty bucks says you fall asleep before I do.”

            “Why are you always trying to give me money? You’re on,” Tobin agreed with a laugh.

***

            “Ash have you seen my phone?” Ali asked, picking up the pillows on the bed and pulling back the covers in search of her phone.

            “Did you check the bathroom?” Ash asked from the other bed, eyes glued to her phone.

            “Why would it be in the bathroom?” Ali asked, looking up at Ash.

            “Why is it ever in the bathroom?” Ash asked, pulling her eyes away from the screen. She watched Ali walk to the bathroom and smiled as she heard Ali’s laugh. “Find it?” she called to her girlfriend.

            “Yeah, it was on the sink,” Ali responded holding up her phone.

            “Yep,” Ash muttered, returning her attention to her phone.

            “What are you reading?” Ali asked, plopping down next to Ashlyn on the bed.

            “Nothing,” Ash replied as she made room for Ali on the bed.

            “Ash,” Ali said, tilting her head and waiting for an answer.

            “Alex?” Ash asked, her face the picture of innocence.

            “You’re not,” Ali said, grabbing for Ashlyn’s phone.

            “I’m not!” Ash replied, holding her phone out of reach.

            “Ashlyn Michelle Harris, are you reading our fanfiction?” Ali demanded, pushing off Ashlyn and sitting up.

            “No!” Ash said quickly, still hiding her phone.

            “Ash,” Ali prompted.

            “Ugh, fine,” Ash muttered, handing over her phone.

            “Which one is this?” Ali asked, scrolling up.

            “You’re going to lose my place!” Ashlyn complained. Ali raised an eyebrow in her and Ash sighed, “It’s the one where we all play softball.”

            “There’s one where we all play softball?” Ali asked, both eyebrows raised at this point.

            “Yes and we’re adorable in it,” Ash replied, stealing her phone back from Ali.

            “I thought you were all pissed off about this stuff still. You threw shit at Kling only a few hours ago,” Ali asked, clearly confused at Ashlyn’s change of heart.

            “Well you were kind of right,” Ash admitted quietly.

            “I was kind of what? I didn’t quite hear you,” Ali asked, biting her lip to hold in her sarcastic smirk.

            “You were right. You and Kling were right, ok? It’s not really us, some of them aren’t even close to being anything like us and some of them are actually really funny,” Ash confessed, looking up to see Ali’s waiting smirk.

            “See?” Ali said, playfully shoving Ashlynn.

            “You want to tell me ‘I told you so’ and get it over with?” Ash asked.

            “Nope, I’m saving that for a rainy day. I’m sure this will come up again,” Ali replied.

            “Great, can’t wait,” Ash responded sarcastically.

            “I’m glad you are letting this go,” Ali said, turning serious for a moment.

            “Who says I’m letting this go?” Ash asked, crossing her arms and leaning back against the headboard.

            “You’re not letting this go?” Ali asked, clearly confused.

            “I mean yeah, I guess I’m sort of over it, kind of. I mean I’m still mad that you guys failed to tell me the whole story and I had to find out from Kyle that there are videos too, but still. Yeah, I guess I’m sort of getting over it,” Ash admitted.

            “Good,” Ali replied. She paused and took a breath before saying, “There’s something else I should probably tell you.”

            “Are you fucking serious Alex?” Ashlyn exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air in defeat.

            “Hey, it’s nothing really. It’s nothing different. I just…” Ali paused again, looking somewhat undecided about how to tell Ash about what she’d done.

            “Just tell me,” Ash breathed, closing her eyes in defeat.

            “Ok, so when I found out, I called Becky to try to help me understand what this all was. She took the time to explain what was on Tumblr and YouTube and read me some of the fanfiction,” Ali began to explain.

            “You let Becky read you fanfiction,” Ash asked, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

            “God Ash, not like that!” Ali retorted, smacking Ashlynn on the leg. “She just read some stuff about Hope and Kelley.” She paused again before continuing, “It was something she had written.”

            “Wait!” Ashlyn exclaimed in disbelief. “Becky writes fanfiction?”

            “Yeah, so when we were talking about it I was having a hard time understanding what kind of people write fanfiction. She told me she did and it changed my perspective. She made me see that fanfiction writers are just fans who are writers, not weirdos. She said she had written and posted other stuff before, but never anything about our team. She told me she had written it just to see if she could,” Ali continued.

            “Was it good?” Ashlyn asked, clearly interested in this new turn of events.

            “Yeah actually, it was really good. She’s a pretty good writer. So that’s why I asked her to write some stuff about us,” Ali said sheepishly.

            Ashlyn stared at her dumbfounded for a second and then stuttered out, “You did what?”

            Ali shifted her position so she was facing Ashlyn fully, “Ok, so you know how you love to tease people on Instagram? It was kind of like that. There’s all these fake stories about us out there, why can’t there be some real ones too?”

            “Let me get this straight,” Ashlyn said, sitting up to face Ali. “You asked Becky to write fanfiction about us? And post it? About things that actually happened?”

            “More or less,” Ali admitted. Ashlyn stared at her in disbelief until Ali was forced to elaborate. “We, um, I decided, I asked her if she would mind writing some stuff about us too so that we had at least some true representation of our actual relationship.”

            “Why?” Ashlyn asked simply.

            “Because I want people to see how amazing we are together and I still want to protect our privacy. I felt like this was an easy way to do both,” Ali replied.

            “And Becky was all for it?” Ash inquired.

            “Not at first. I had to convince her that her Hope and Kelley story was good and that it was ok for her to post it. I mean, it’s not really fiction if it happened right? So she went along with it,” Ali told her.

            Ashlyn shook her head and looked away from Ali in thought. Finally she met her eyes again, “Is there anything else?”

            “No,” Ali said quickly. Ashlyn raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “No I promise. That’s all I know. That’s it.”

            “Ok,” Ashlyn said as she scooted her body back toward the headboard and leaned against it. She patted the spot on the bed next to her. “Read it to me.”

            “Read you what?” Ali asked, eyebrows knit in confusion.

            “The shit you convinced Becky to post. Get your ass over here and read it to me,” Ash replied, patting the spot next to her again.

            “No,” Ali responded, shaking her head.

            “Oh, yeah you are. You decided not to tell me any of this and now you’re telling me you let Becky write about us? You’re reading it,” Ash told her emphatically.

            Ali stared down Ash, attempting to get out of this somehow, but was met with more bed patting. She blew out a long breath and relented, “Fine.”

            “That’s my girl!” Ashlyn exclaimed with a smile, holding out her arm for Ali to scoot under. She handed Ali her phone with a smile.

            “You kill me Harris,” Ali said, snuggling into Ashlyn’s side. She hunted down Becky’s author page as Ashlyn planted a quick kiss of triumph on Ali’s cheek. She rolled her eyes at her girlfriend. “Ok, you want to hear the one about Hope and Kelley or the one about us?”

            “Us first, then Hope and Kelley,” Ash replied, pulling her in closer.

            “Really? There’s more than one,” Ali asked, looking over at Ashlyn.

            “There’s more than one? Becky really likes Hope and Kelley huh?” Ash replied, intrigued.

            “Everyone likes Hope and Kelley,” Ali responded with a smile.

            “Especially Hope and Kelley,” Ashlyn replied with a matching smile. “Now quit stalling and read the thing!”

            “Oh my god fine. Here we go. It’s called Toast Bandit,” Ali told her, scrolling down to the story.

            “No it’s not!” Ashlyn exclaimed, laughing at the title.

            “Shut up, yes it is,” Ali said, cheeks flushing slightly.

            “This is awesome. I’m adorable in it aren’t I?” Ash asked her with a smile.

            “Yes, now stop it or I’m not going to read it,” Ali replied. Ashlyn bit her lips, but her eyes danced with amusement. Ali waited until she was sure that Ashlyn wasn’t going to comment and started to read, “’Ali set down her plate in the space next to Ashlyn’s.’”

            “This is going to be great!” Ashlyn whispered. Her comment was met with a playful slap on the leg as Ali continued to read.

***

            “Hey are you asleep?” Kelley asked in the darkness.

            “Mmm, no,” came the groggy reply.

            “Can I please just say again that you are a genius?” Kelley rolled over and whispered as if she was afraid her teammates could hear their conversation through the walls.

            “You can say that anytime you want kid,” Hope replied, pulling Kelley closer and planting a kiss on her forehead.

            “Mmm,” Kelley murmured, finding Hope’s lips for a kiss of her own. “You are a genius. I can’t believe you pulled this off.”

            Hope laughed and replied, “Yeah me either honestly. Most of the credit goes to you actually. You were perfect.”

            “I was wasn’t I?” Kelley agreed smugly.

            Hope snorted a laugh, “Don’t inflate that ego too big kid, we won’t fit in this bed.”

            “And that would be a travesty after all that trouble we went to,” Kelley responded, snuggling closer to Hope.

            “Yes, yes it would,” Hope murmured, closing her eyes again.

            “I mean, I can’t believe you actually got Dawn to let us room together,” Kelley replied, clearly not caring that Hope was exhausted after the game.

            Hope groaned and then relented, “I didn’t convince Dawn to let us room together. I gave her a hundred bucks to let me make up the room assignments and keep her mouth shut about it.”

            “And she went for it. I can’t believe she went for it,” Kelley said very much awake.

            “Yep, she went for it. Obviously,” Hope muttered sleepily.

            “Hey wake up Solo, don’t be an old lady,” Kelley said, playfully punching her bedmate.

            Hope scowled in the dark and said, “Stop it. It’s way past my bedtime.”

            “Yes it is, but seriously, you never answered my question earlier. Did you know about this before they told you?” Kelley asked.

            “Yes,” Hope replied simply.

            “And you didn’t think to tell me? Your shipmate?” Kelley asked, scoffing in mock annoyance.

            “No because I knew I could use it to my advantage. Just like I did this week,” Hope explained.

            “Moe and Kling fell right into your trap,” Kelley laughed quietly.

            “Yes they did,” Hope agreed sleepily.

            “Did you know that’s what they were talking about when they first sat down?” Kelley asked.

            “No, I just wanted to know why they were acting all secretively,” Hope explained quietly, her voice low with exhaustion.

            “So you got lucky?” Kelley asked, desperately needing to know the whole story.

            “I’d say you got lucky kid,” Hope snorted.

            Kelley laughed through her nose and agreed, “Yeah I did.” She caught Hope’s lips in hers again. “I’m glad we had a few days together,” she admitted quietly.

            “Me too,” Hope replied, opening her eyes in the dark to meet Kelley’s.

            “I can’t believe you did all this just so we could spend some time together,” Kelley breathed.

            “You’re worth it,” Hope responded quietly.

            They locked eyes for second, reveling in the time they’ve spent together in the last week. Kelly couldn’t hold it in anymore when she said, “So in the locker room, Kling looked like she was reading you the riot act.”

            “Pinoe told her I was up to something and she confronted me about it,” Hope told her.

            “She did? What did you tell her?” Kelley exclaimed, a little louder than she needed to.

            “Shh,” Hope told her. “I can’t remember who’s in the room next to us.”

            “It’s Chups and Boxxy. No big deal,” Kelley replied.

            “So anyway, yeah she told me Pinoe said I was up to something and I told her Pinoe was probably up to something by trying to convince her that I was up to something. She bought it enough to walk away,” Hope continued.

            “Wow, you really are a genius!” Kelley said, admiration in her voice.

            “I clearly couldn’t have done it without you. You did your job perfectly,” Hope replied, with a smile.

            “Yeah I played an integral role. You totally couldn’t have done it without me,” Kelley responded, teasingly.

            “Clearly,” Hope muttered, eyes closing again.

            “So it doesn’t bother you?” Kelley asked, after a few minutes.

            “What doesn’t bother me?” Hope inquired, voice thick with sleep again.

            “That people write stories about us,” Kelley said.

            “No, does it bother you?” Hope asked, opening her eyes to meet Kelley’s.

            Kelley knit her eyebrows in thought and replied, “Maybe? A little? Mostly that one about you slamming me up against the bathroom door.”

            “Don’t worry about it Kell,” Hope reassured her. “Nothing anyone could come up with comes close to the real story.”

            “Yeah?” Kelley asked her tone unsure.

            “Yeah,” Hope assured her. “But remind me to slam you up against a bathroom door someday. That might be fun.”

            Kelley swallowed noisily. “I’ll do my best to remind you,” she breathed huskily.

            She leaned forward and kissed Hope again, this time slowly, pulling the keeper in closer.

            “Kelley?” Hope murmured against her defender’s lips. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”

            Kelley pulled back slowly and met Hope’s steel blue eyes. A mischievous grin took over her face as she said, “Oh, I intend to finish it.”