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“Can I hold your hand?”
Kelley loves pranks and scaring people but ironically she hates scary movies. They freak her out, especially the gory ones. During the camp in New Orleans the team decided to have a marathon of horror movies and Kelley knew that she couldn't skip it without raising questions. She didn't necessarily want all of the team to know that she was scared of horror movies because that might give some people ideas of revenge (like Tobin maybe). Under these circumstances Kelley had no choice but to endure the marathon.
Kelley was one of the last ones to arrive, just a little behind Hope and Carli.
"Yolo. Princess," Kelley greets both of them, "how come you decided to grace us peasants with your presence?"
Hope halfheartedly tries to shove Kelley but she moves out of the way.
"We like horror movies," Carli answers and Kelley almost rolls her eyes because of course those two like horror movies, they probably think they're funny and too “unrealistic”.
However having to stand behind Hope gives Kelley an idea: she will sit behind her on the floor so that the goalkeeper blocks her view of the screen. Patting herself on the back Kelley goes through with her plan.
"Oh sorry Kell, I'm blocking you." Hope moves until she's next to Kelley, whose brilliant plan was thwarted by Hope's irritating (and not at all cute) thoughtfulness.
10 minutes into the movie and nothing bad has happened but Kelley is on edge, the moment anything even remotely creepy shows up on the screen she's going to jump so hard she'll probably hit the ceiling. To distract herself she sneaks a look over at Hope. Hope is completely enthralled by the movie, blue eyes wide open so she won't miss a thing.
After a few minutes Kelley has to force herself to stop staring at the beautiful goalkeeper and turn back to the lame movie. She must have missed something important because she doesn’t know why there’s a girl running through the woods but she knows it was a bad decision.
“Can I hold your hand?” Kelley whispers to Hope because the scary looking dude is about to kill the girl and her pride isn’t worth a sleepless night.
Now it’s Hope’s turn to stare at Kelley but she doesn’t question her, she just shifts her hand so that Kelley can grab it. This strategy works for a while but now the scary looking dude is about to dismember the dead girl’s boyfriend and Kelley quickly hides her face in Hope’s shoulder. Hope freezes momentarily but she doesn’t move away. While discreetly sniffing Hope’s perfume Kelley starts to like horror movies. Just a little bit though.
“You’re warm.”
Practice today had been hell. The team was currently in Germany, preparing for their last friendly before the Algarve Cup and the german winter was being specially unforgiving to everyone but Ali.
Hope was talking quietly with Alyssa and Ashlyn while they waited for the field players to be done with their training. As expected Hope was suitably bundled up but not everybody was. Ashlyn was in the middle of a story when she stopped talking abruptly and smiled but before Hope could ask why she felt arms being thrown around her and hands sliding underneath her jacket but thankfully not underneath her compression shirt.
“You’re warm.”
Kelley had pressed herself entirely against Hope. Under different circumstances she would say something to Kelley but she knew that the southern girl didn't have much tolerance for low temperatures. So Hope carried on with the conversation, like she didn't notice the smirks on her fellow goalkeepers’ faces but the blush on her cheeks had little to do with the cold.
“Just because”
“I think you’re beautiful”
Kelley looks down at her medal still in disbelief. She’s now a two times Olympic gold medalists. And there’s another great gold medal back at home. This is everything she has ever dreamed of and more.
She should be packing, they’re going back to the States today but she just wants to sit calmly for a few minutes before all the media craziness start again. Alex had already packed and was probably spending time with Servando.
A knock on the door startled her. It’s Hope, with a bag of Skittles.
“Hey KO, I got you this.”
“Why?”
“Just because.” Hope shrugged like this was something that happened all the time
Kelley impulsively hugs Hope, because saying goodbye to her USWNT family is always hard after all the time they spend together but she has never dreaded so much the thought of Hope being a whole country away from her. Something changed in Rio or maybe things have always been different between them and Kelley just didn’t notice, too caught up in Hope and how she makes her feel.
“Everything ok?” Hope leans back so that she can see Kelley’s face.
“Yes,” Kelley says with a soft smile to reassure Hope, “it’s been a crazy few days, that’s all.” The two of them didn’t get a lot of time to celebrate their win together.
Hope nods in understanding. After a few minutes Kelley reluctantly steps back and busies herself with the bag of candy.
“Shouldn’t you be packed by now?”
“I was interrupted.”
“Well maybe I should go.” Kelley grabbed Hope before she could take even one step towards the door.
“No you can stay,” Kelley points to her bed, “sit.” Hope gives her a warning look at the command but she still complies. She does that a lot around Kelley. It’s one of those things Kelley had taken for granted before Rio.
“Are you going back to Georgia?”
“Yes, I miss being home.” After all this time Georgia is the only place that has felt like home to her and it’s been far too long since the last time she was there.
They make small talk and share the same stories they have told each other a thousand times before. But right now that’s not important.
Kelley halfheartedly packs her stuff but she’s paying more attention to Hope. As they talk Kelley ends up standing between Hope’s legs but not really touching her. In this position Hope has to look up to Kelley who takes the opportunity to take in the goalkeeper.
“I think you’re beautiful.” Kelley wants to take it back almost immediately because while this isn’t the first time she has complimented Hope she knows there’s no way she didn’t notice the reverent tone of those words.
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing,” Hope says softly and gives Kelley a gentle half-smile.
“Yeah?”
Hope nods. They share a smile and Kelley feels like they’re finally on the same page.
“You’re still not done packing.”
Kelley groans and it makes Hope laugh.
“The key is under the mat.”
This week Sky Blue has to play against the Reign at home. It’s going to be the first time Kelley plays against Hope as her girlfriend but it doesn’t feel that differently. Only now they are going to get shit from Pinoe and whoever else goes out with them after the game when they inevitably ditch them to go back to Kelley’s apartment.
Kelley was walking into the last training before the game when her phone rang and a picture of Hope showed up on the screen.
“Are you still home?” Hope asked before greeting her.
“No why?”
“Do you have a spare key hidden somewhere?”
“I might.” Kelley can almost hear Hope rolling her eyes at her.
“Where is it?”
“Are you trying to sabotage Sky Blue’s best player? Are you afraid of losing Solo?”
“No, I would never mess with Cap.” Kelley gasps loudly and Hope laughs at her reaction.
“You’re rude.”
“Come on Kell, where’s the key?”
Kelley knows they could go back and forth all day but she doesn’t have a lot of time because practice is about to start.
“The key is under the mat.” She figures that eventually she’s going to find out what Hope is up to.
During practice Kelley doesn’t have time to think about Hope’s weird phone call. This season Sky Blue is trying to make their way back into the playoffs and everyone is giving their best each and every practice.
The ride back home is a different story and Kelley pictures Hope waiting for her at the apartment. By the time she makes it to her floor she’s a little impatient and she almost bursts into her apartment. The place is completely silent and Kelley peeks into every room, looking for Hope. She leaves her bedroom for last. She opens the door, preparing herself for a disappointment but what she founds inside surprises her.
There’s a vase full of flowers on her nightstand that she clearly remembers wasn’t there when she left. Next to it is a greeting card with two stick figures, one of them grabbing the other’s cheeks and it says I like your face. Inside Hope wrote “I wanted to deliver this on person but breaking into your apartment works too. P.S: Let it Reign.”
Kelley couldn’t stop smiling even if she tried. Because this is the kind of cheesy thing no one would expect the “angry mean” goalkeeper would do and it makes Kelley’s heart skip a beat to think Hope would do something like this for her.
She sits on the bed for a while still holding on to the card. Kelley looks at the time, by now Hope is on a team meeting so she can’t call her but she can at least text her.
I guess your face is ok
“Take my jacket, it’s cold outside.” “It looks good on you.”
It was tough, being on a relationship with someone who lives on the other side of the country but Hope and Kelley were trying their hardest to make things work. That meant doing things like Kelley asking her coach to let her stay a day longer in Seattle after their game. It gave them a chance to spend some time together without the pressure of their jobs.
On her last morning in Seattle Kelley was staring at Hope making breakfast for the two of them. She always takes the opportunity to just watch Hope be herself without the weight of an entire team on her shoulders.
Just then Leo wakes up and starts running in circles in front of the door, clearly wanting to go outside.
"I'll go," Kelley offers.
"Take my jacket, it's cold outside," Hope says without turning around. Kelley agrees and after grabbing Leo's leash she puts on Hope's jacket. The jacket engulfs Kelley but it's warm and it smells like Hope, Kelley is already plotting a way to take it back with her to New Jersey.
By the time Kelley makes her way back with Leo breakfast is ready. Kelley thoroughly cleans Leo's paws before unleashing him. When she stands up again she finds Hope staring at her with a smile on her face.
"What? Is there mud on my face?"
Hope shakes her head in a way that would make anyone else look shy.
"It looks good on you," Hope says warmly, "my jacket looks good on you."
"It makes me look like a dwarf," Kelley complains but the huge grin on her face betrays her.
"A very cute dwarf though." Hope winks.
“wow”
Kelley and Hope were in Atlanta because one of Kelley's friends from high school was getting married. Hope was incredibly nervous. This wedding was a big deal because it was the first big event they would attend as a couple.
It didn’t help that Kelley was taking a long time to get ready. Instead of the two of them getting ready at the same time Kelley had insisted on Hope going first because she refused to show Hope her dress. Hope didn't think this was fair since Kelley had been with her when she bought her dress.
Hope was about to knock on the hotel's bathroom door to see if Kelley needed any help when the door opened.
"How do I look?"
"Wow"
"Great answer." Kelley smirked, satisfied that her hard work had paid off.
Hope unconsciously ran her hands over Kelley's dress, admiring how gorgeous her girlfriend looked. Hope especially liked how low cut the dress was on the back. She leaned in for a kiss but Kelley turned her head.
"Nice try, you're not getting me out of this dress so easily." Kelley took a step back; Hope hadn't realized how close together they were.
"Come on, I want to drink champagne and show off my hot girlfriend," Kelley said. She grabbed Hope's arm and dragged her out of the room.
Hope was still nervous but now she was also excited, thinking of getting Kelley out of that dress.