Chapter Text
Everything started out as some kind of silly joke a few months ago.
When Ona and Lucy met at a wedding they were both attending back in December, neither of them suspected things to change for them so quickly.
It wasn't the first time they'd seen each other as they had some friends in common. There'd definitely been some birthday parties they'd both been at, but they hadn't seriously interacted with each other in any form until that evening.
Ona had already been playing for Manchester United for some years while Lucy had just transferred from Manchester City to Barcelona last summer. It was obvious that the two of them had definitely been playing against each other a few times in the past but neither of them remembered anything about it when Lucy approached the younger Spaniard after the ceremony and they started talking.
Since Ona had been living in England for a while now, the language wasn't a big deal anymore. She could understand almost everything and her thick spanish accent didn't hold her back from chatting a lot.
Not once did she seem shy or bothered by the fact that English wasn't her native language as she started talking to anyone around her without wasting a second to think about it.
The Spaniard seemed to be incredibly confident and extroverted, which immediately caught Lucy's attention. If the brunette had only known back then that it would become one of the things she adored most about her.
As the evening ran its course, hardly a second passed without the two of them being seen together. They got along pretty well, it seemed like there was a lot to talk about and things just didn't get boring so they continued their conversation for hours over some drinks.
It almost felt like time completely lost its meaning and hours became seconds with Lucy completely losing herself in Ona's breathtaking chocolate-brown eyes while listening to stories about her past at Barcelona and her former teammates.
"There was this one time, when Aitana and I had to share a room for the first time in camp, and it took us some time to get along. I think it was in 2012, but I don't really remember. When we came back to our room after training it was already dark. We switched on the lights and suddenly—"
While the Spaniard just kept on talking, Lucy couldn't think about anything else than the fact that she would love to listen to her voice on repeat. And when she suddenly heard her laugh for the first time, there was some kind of weird feeling bubbling deep inside of her that got even more intense over the next few hours.
She found herself desperately chasing for Ona's laugh as she tried everything to hear it again and again. How could there be a sound so pure and wonderful coming from a simple human being?
As Ona stopped talking at one point, she remarked her opposite's gaze and interpreted it the wrong way. "I'm so sorry, I know I'm talking way too much. It's time for you to tell me some stories about the girls as well! How is everyone doing?"
Lucy was being forced back to reality by the Spaniard looking at her with a curious gaze. The english defender immediately shook her head, "Oh, don't worry, it's fine! I actually quite enjoy listening to your stories, I'd love to hear more honestly."
The english defender encouraged her to talk even more, and Ona being Ona continued happily. Even though she preferred talking in her native language, she loved meeting new people and Lucy was definitely good company.
At first, it was Ona who talked most of the time, but after a while, Lucy started telling stories about her time at Manchester City, her transfer to Barcelona, the first meetings with her new team mates and the Euros which she'd won with England.
"I've seen the final, I remember watching it at home with my whole family and it was amazing. I can't remember the last time I've watched a match that got me this emotional, even though it didn't include my own team. After the final whistle, I instantly texted Ella, Mary and Lessi to congratulate them!"
Lucy smiled at Ona, very pleased by the fact that the Spaniard had watched her win that final. They continued talking about the Euros for a while but decided to stay with the positive aspects, even though they both knew that things at the Spanish national team were far from being positive.
But Lucy respected Ona's request not to talk about it now, so they switched topics after a while.
In the meantime, the two nearly forgot that they were at a wedding and it seemed like they were in a completely other world than all the other guests around them.
For Lucy, it wasn't only the fact that the Spaniard was incredible to talk to. She was also absolutely gorgeous. Breathtaking, to say the least.
The way her eyes started sparkling whenever she laughed over one of Lucy's silly jokes made the brunette feel a certain way she'd almost completely forgotten. There were also the light waves of her hair, which looked incredibly soft by the way, and the thousand freckles covering her beautiful face, that caught Lucy completely off guard.
Sometimes Ona would talk a bit too fast and then suddenly couldn't help herself but tripping over some words. In order to that, it seemed like the more comfortable she got, the more Spanish was slipping out of her mouth here and there.
Even though Lucy didn't understand every spanish word Ona was throwing into her sentences, she absolutely adored that about her.
When the Spaniard looked at her, Lucy could feel the way Onas' mesmerizing eyes, which were laid on her, heat up something inside of her. Not in a sexual way, it seemed more like her heart warmed by the Spaniard's soft gaze as if she could easily light up her darkest hours.
She almost cringed at her own thoughts, normally far away from being the romantic or clingy one but even if she'd tried, Lucy wouldn't have been able to stop herself from drowning deep inside the depths of her opposites' eyes.
The evening ended faster than expected and luckily Ona had been brave enough to ask for Lucy's number. Otherwise the spanish defender would've probably spent the next few days mourning about not asking her.
Just when Ona was about to say goodbye, it had been the english defender who had brought up a topic that helped Ona with her mission to ask Lucy for her number.
The topic just came to Lucy's mind without really thinking about it and there was nothing she could do, as the words came bubbling out of her mouth just like that, "You know, sometimes I miss English football. The league, I mean."
"Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic in Spain and I absolutely love playing for Barcelona. But it's so different from England." — "It definitely is, I agree. It's the opposite for me tho, I really miss playing for Barcelona. But you know what? If you miss it that much, you could just come around some time and share me a visit in Manchester. You could give me your phone number and I can text you some of the dates. I've got some games the next few months and there will for sure be one you could manage to come to. Only if you want to, of course. No pressure!"
Lucy agreed, of course she did. Even though she wasn't quite sure if she could really manage it. She didn't have a lot of free time at Barcelona, sometimes it was just one or two rest-days in between, but the brunette knew that she would do anything just to be able to see Ona again.
And so she did.
It wasn't easy to find a free spot in her calendar, but there was exactly one game, in May, which fit in just perfectly. And to be honest, it couldn't have been any better as it was the most exciting game from Lucy's point of view. Manchester City against Manchester United.
They'd tried meeting up before, but Lucy had to cancel her flight last minute as she didn't manage to find someone to take care of Narla and she obviously couldn't leave her dog alone over the weekend.
Taking her with her wasn't an option as Narla absolutely hated flying and normally there'd always been Keira to take care of the little one, but things had been a bit off between them back then.
They'd broken up some months ago after being in an on-off-relationship for years and even though there hadn't been a fight or something similar and everything was quite alright between the two of them, sometimes things were still a bit difficult.
"So you're coming? This time for real?"
It was one of those nights again. Lucy had straight up went to the shower when she entered her apartment after training and she caught herself hurrying up more than usual just like so many nights before. Not without any good reason, obviously.
"Yep, I booked the flight yesterday. And I already asked Alessia if I'm allowed to stay at her guest room for the night, which should be fine."
The english defender was sitting on her couch again, a plate of pasta in one hand and her MacBook standing in front of her on the table, Ona smiling right back at her through the screen.
Normally, Lucy preferred texting over FaceTime as she wasn't really one to talk over the phone. But during the last few months, she kind of changed that habit of hers as she began to understand that Ona loved talking over FaceTime all the time. And honestly, she even started to like it as well.
Lucy couldn't quite remember how this whole FaceTime-thing between them had started, but somewhere between talking the whole night at a wedding back in December and now, it became a regular part of her weekly routine to call the Spaniard a few times per week.
The english defender recognized a change in Ona's smile when she dropped Lessi's name and the younger one seemed to be a bit confused as she furrowed her eyebrows, small crinkles forming in between her eyes.
"Wait. Why did you ask Lessi? I told you to just stay at my place!" — "I know, but I wasn't sure if you'd really want me to, you know? We don't know each other that good yet and some people might feel uncomfortable in situations like that. I mean, it's been some months since we've met but still, I didn't want to pressure you."
They didn't know each other that good. Yet. Ona didn't know why but this one small word suddenly made her heart skip a beat and she couldn't hide the bright smile creeping back up her face.
While eating her pasta, Lucy was waiting for Ona's answer. By now, she knew that sometimes in the evening, when it was getting late and Ona was a bit tired after a long day of training, it took her a few seconds longer to answer as she was searching for certain english words in her head.
It was incredibly cute. At least in Lucy's opinion.
"Okay, listen, you're not disturbing me. I don't know what you're talking about. Of course you can always stay at my apartment, it's far too big for me anyway! And I'd really enjoy your company."
Lucy slowly looked up from her plate at Ona's words and it didn't take long for a small grin to appear on her face. "Alright, then we'll do that." — "Great! I'm gonna pick you up at the airport, just tell me the time and I'll be there."
The two of them continued talking for a few minutes but sadly they both had training the next day so they had to say their goodbyes by midnight.
After waving at the screen for the last time and pressing the red button to end the call, Lucy stared at the black screen for a few seconds, a bright smile still glued to her face.
This happened every single time they were talking to each other over FaceTime.
The smiles were coming at her so easily, Lucy couldn't imagine the last time she'd been smiling so much. It felt a bit off at first as she was usually more the serious person, but she already kind of got used to not being able to stop smiling when it came to the pretty Spaniard.
For Ona, it wasn't any different, as she sat on her bed this night, staring through her window into the darkness. It was way past midnight, most of the city lights were turned off by now and Manchester suddenly felt a lot smaller than it normally did.
The Spaniard knew that she should've went to sleep a long time ago, but sometimes her thoughts were just a little too loud. The struggle wasn't regular, normally she only experienced it right before big games, but since meeting a certain english defender some months ago, there were nights when Ona wasn't able to stop the thoughts from spinning around inside her head.
Normally she wasn't a big daydreamer, but the thought of sparkling forest-green eyes and a very attractive northern english accent came to her mind naturally and she couldn't stop it from retuning every now and then.
Back then, Ona didn't take these thoughts any serious. She was very happy to be friends with someone like Lucy who also had some friends in common and was great to talk to. The spanish defender obviously enjoyed her company.
Plus, Lucy needed Ona to teach her some Spanish as the english defender needed extra lessons to make her fans at Barcelona proud. And honestly, Ona had always loved to bring her native language closer to other people.
When Lucy arrived in Manchester some days later, it kind of felt like coming home for the brunette. As she walked through the airport on her way to the parking lot to meet Ona, she remembered the day she had to say goodbye to the city and fly to Barcelona for the last time.
Of course she'd been there before to sign her contract and undergo some medical procedures but her final flight from Manchester to Barcelona had also marked the last time she'd stepped a foot at this place and it kind of felt like a small déja-vu to her.
It didn't take her long to arrive at her destination and she could feel some kind of nervousness rising inside of her as she came closer and closer.
The brunette couldn't quite understand the reason behind those feelings as there was no need for her to feel this nervous. She already met Ona, it wasn't like she would spend those next days with a total stranger.
Lucy tried her best to suppress the feeling of excitement in her stomach focusing on her task to find the Spaniard's car in the parking lot.
Meanwhile, Ona sat in her car staring at her phone as she felt the strange need to text Ella, one of her best friends, about these weird feelings inside of her.
However, she quickly decided against it when she remembered that Ella and Lucy played for the same national team. The looks on her friends' faces had been confused enough when she had told them about Lucy coming to Manchester over the weekend. Ona didn't need to give them any more material to tease her about.
The Spaniard had always been one to feel excited easily but still, in this moment it felt a bit off to be this nervous about a friend visiting her.
As she tried her best to forget about those feelings, she looked at her phone and was met by a message telling her that Lucy arrived at the parking lot.
The Spaniard got out of her car and it took her less than two minutes to spot Lucy. Despite the black sunglasses on her nose and the cap on her head, it was undoubtedly her by the way she started waving as soon as she recognized Ona.
They hugged a little longer than Lucy would normally agree on, regarding the fact that she normally didn't like too much physical contact. But in this case, it didn't bother her at all. As soon as the younger woman put her arms around her, Lucy felt herself being surrounded by a mixture of cotton and orange slices.
She couldn’t stop herself from closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as if she tried to burn Ona's scent into her senses.
Back at the wedding there had been no chance for Lucy to find out what the Spaniard smelled like as there were far too many people around them and she didn’t hug her that night. It made this experience even more intoxicating to her and she wondered how someone could manage to smell this good in a place as nasty as the parking lot they were currently in.
A soft voice whispering “Hey” into her left ear pushed Lucy back to reality. Even though Ona could’ve honestly spend hours in the english defenders' arms, it felt like now was the time to properly greet her.
“Afraid of paparazzi, huh?”, she laughed watching Lucy remove the cap from her head as soon as Ona let go of her. “You have no clue. They can be brutal, especially in Barcelona.” The Spaniard nodded understandingly, “Trust me, I know.”
The two of them stowed Lucy's bag in the trunk and then made their way to Ona's apartment. Regarding the fact that it had mostly been Ona talking the last time, it amazed the younger woman that this time, it was Lucy who didn’t stop talking for a whole 30 minutes during the car ride. It seemed like she had a lot to talk about and the Spaniard enjoyed listening and nodding every once in a while.
The evening at Ona's apartment was spent with ordering some take-away sushi and scrolling through Netflix as it took them a while to figure out what to watch.
“Have you already seen The Menu?” Ona shook her head right away, “I've honestly never seen a horror movie in my life, I'm a bit of a — how do you say it? Miedica? I don't know how to say it in english but I'm just really scared of these things.”
Lucy couldn't hide the smile creeping up her lips as she watched Ona being lost in her thoughts while searching for the right word. “I think the word you're searching for is scaredy cat.”
“Never heard that before but that's probably it, sí!” Ona shrugged her shoulders smiling slightly at the english defender next to her.
They were sharing the sofa in front of the TV and while the Spaniard tried her best to keep a friendly distance between the two of them, she couldn't help the warmth spreading inside of her when their knees accidentally touched at one point.
“Alright, so we're not watching a horror movie today but I'll promise you, I won't spare you forever.” Ona looked at the brunette with big eyes but there was no other option than to agree with that.
Maybe there was a chance she'd enjoy watching a movie like that with such good company?
The two of them quickly found another movie to watch and as their food arrived a bit later, they started to relax and enjoyed the evening.
Honestly, the movie was not that good but it didn't really bother Lucy as she caught herself paying more attention to the pretty Spaniard next to her anyway. That didn't go unnoticed by Ona but she didn't dare to meet the brunettes' eyes so she tried her best to stay focused at the TV in front of them.
As the younger woman had a match tomorrow, it wasn't possible for them to watch the movie till the end but they promised each other to finish it another time.
Ona showed Lucy the guest room and everything she needed to know about the bathroom as well before the two of them called it a night and went to bed.
It had been a long time since Lucy had last slept at a friend's apartment and it kind of felt weird regarding the fact that it had been their first real meeting today after that wedding some months ago.
But then she remembered the familiarity she'd felt while sitting on that sofa next to the Spaniard which had been far away from feeling weird. It had felt like something she would like to experience more often, even though it wasn't likely for them to be able to do it again anytime soon.
Lucy kept staring at the ceiling for a while before slowly drifting off to sleep.
In the room next door it was Ona, who was still awake. It felt like she could still feel the brunette's gaze upon her like fire burning into her skin and she couldn't help some sort of sadness welling up inside of her at the thought of Lucy leaving tomorrow after the game.
Ona wasn't sure how long it would take them to meet up again and as she tossed around under the sheets trying her best to fall asleep, there was the thought of those beautiful forest-green eyes again as soon as she closed her eyes.
This time, the Spaniard allowed her thoughts to take the lead for once, which resulted in her dreaming about a certain english defender sleeping on the other side of the wall.