Chapter Text
From the minute the whistle blew to start the game, the Levante striker made it her mission to try and annoy Mapi as much as possible. A lot of teams in the league would sit back against Barcelona, trying their best to hold them off as long as possible and catch them on the counter but Levante was never that team. They were fast and fit, always being as physical as possible to break up Barcelona’s play.
Mapi was known for her short temper when she played and today she was being tested to her limit. Every chance the striker had, she made sure to nudge or kick at Mapi’s shins after she released the ball.
After only 20 minutes Mapi felt herself getting progressively more riled up, causing her to do the same thing back and leaving a little extra in every tackle on the striker. Alexia was yelling at her to calm down every time there was a stoppage in play but she just couldn’t get herself to shake it off and just focus on the game. Everytime the striker or Mapi got the ball one of them would foul the other causing both teams and the ref to get annoyed.
Ingrid had been watching her wife get progressively riled up from the bench. The past couple of months she had been starting on the bench having been working her way back to full fitness after her maternity leave. She gave birth 11 months ago to their son, Max, who was up in the stands with their 4 year old daughter, Olivia.
Mapi and Ingrid had decided 5 years ago that they wanted to start having kids. Ingrid had always wanted to be pregnant and she knew the longer they waited their chances of conceiving would keep getting more difficult.
Everything with Olivia had been so easy. It worked the first try and Ingrid felt relatively normal all the way until the last few weeks. The birth may have been long and painful but the couple’s excitement overshadowed all the pain, especially when they saw her for the first time.
Ingrid recovered quickly, getting back to full fitness and playing within 6 months but when they had decided 2 years later to have another baby, it was not the same story.
They had always known they had wanted at least 2 kids so right after the end of their season they started the process again. It was exhausting having a 2 year old that was full of energy, requiring constant attention while Ingrid was trying to minimize stress to increase the chances of conceiving quickly. Finally after 3 tries over the course of 5 months, Ingrid was pregnant again.
The pregnancy was difficult for Ingrid from the beginning with horrible morning sickness and ending the last 3 weeks on bed rest. Her recovery to get back to full fitness was much slower the second time around. She still wasn’t starting games, only getting 20-30 minutes because of the couple of muscle injuries she has gotten since coming back.
Ever since the kids were a couple months old, they would come to the home games to either be watched by any of the players that were injured or their babysitter. They also were usually brought to any away days that were more then one night, much to all of the players delight.
Fridolina was with them today, having taken a knock in a game a couple weeks ago that was minor but none of the staff wanted to risk even putting her on the bench. She was sitting with Irene’s wife, Carla, and their son Alexander who recently turned 6.
Frido was a seasoned babysitter by now, she loved being around kids and would frequently just spend the day with Mapi, Ingrid and the kids. For the game today, she was up in the stands with Max sitting in her lap looking at all of the things around him and laughing at the faces that Carla was making at him.
Olivia usually would walk up and down the rows, stopping to talk to everyone she knew, making sure that she pointed out that her mommy was number 4 and that her mama was number 23. Thankfully she had recently started to understand what was actually happening in the game, so the entire game wasn’t spent telling her how much longer she would have to wait until she could go run around on the field with her moms and aunts.
She was able to follow the ball around and could understand the crowd noises enough to know when to cheer and when to be upset. Whoever she was sitting with during the game would constantly be trying to explain what was happening in 4 year old terms when she kept asking why something was happening. It got exhausting at times but Frido was doing her best to redirect the little girl as much as possible.
Frido had just sat back down with Max in her lap after going to change his diaper during halftime. Olivia and Alexander were both standing a few chairs down jumping around, trying to get their moms attention as they ran back onto the field after halftime. Since Ingrid was still on the bench she was the only one who waved back and blew Olivia a kiss as she was walking back to sit down.
Ingrid and Frido have been best friends for years which has correlated to the Swede coming to know the spaindard very well. Even though they just kicked off after halftime, Frido could see how the Levante striker was still pestering Mapi any chance she could. She was shocked that both players had gone the entire first half with only a warning but both players were quickly booked in the 48th minute.
Mapi reaches her breaking point in the 55th minute. She knew she had to be careful but when the striker trips her behind the back of the referee she couldn't control herself anymore. The next time the striker is dribbling toward goal, Mapi lets her anger take over and tackles her, getting none of the ball and all of her ankles.
Mapi instantly is filled with regret, worried that she might have actually hurt the striker as she watches her roll around on the ground. The other Levante forward close by shoves Mapi away just as she goes to lean down to apologize. She stumbles back but quickly finds her footing and shoves the player back, too worked up not to react.
The striker obviously isn’t as hurt as she made it seem when she jumps back up and steps in between her teammate and Mapi, who are now face to face. All three players are yelling at one another by the time the ref and the rest of both teams are running over to break it up.
Alexia quickly pushes her away from the crowd and tries to sweet talk the ref even though she knows that Mapi is about to get a second yellow, if not a straight red. The ref doesn’t waste any time in telling everyone except Mapi and the striker to get away from her. Mapi listens to the ref ask the striker if she needs any treatment, the striker shakes her head and starts to explain how Mapi deserves the straight red card.
Mapi stands quietly, knowing she is about to get sent off and is hopeful that it's a second yellow so that she only has to miss one game instead of three. The ref seems to be listening to the two other refs in her ear for any extra advice from what they saw, building the pit forming in Mapi’s stomach as the adrenaline wears off. She knows she is about to leave the pitch and is relieved when a yellow card is shown, following up directly with a red card.
None of the Barcelona players really argue the call, they just watch as Mapi walks off the field with her fists clenched and head down. Ingrid tries to catch her eye as she walks past the bench but she is called to start warming up so she can replace Mapi.
As Ingrid warms up she can help but let her mind wander to why her wife had gotten so worked up today. She knows that for the past few weeks Mapi has been a little extra on edge, they both have if she was being honest.
Max was going through another stage of sleep regression and was getting more teeth which made him extra whiny and clingy. Olivia had also been going through a phase where she would wake up multiple times a week from nightmares and would be too scared to fall back asleep in her own bed. Between Max not sleeping more than a few hours and Olivia becoming a constant in between the couple during the night, neither one of them was getting much sleep.
They were both exhausted but Ingrid had noticed that something else was bothering her wife. She hadn’t gotten around to asking about it since they barely had even a minute alone in the past couple months due to the combination of being in the peak of the season and juggling both kids' sleeping schedules and neediness.
As Ingrid runs down the sideline to get warm, she glances up into the stands, raising an eyebrow as she watches Frido give Max over to Carla before she picks up Olivia and takes her out toward the hallway. She puts that in the back of her mind to ask Frido about later but is forced to shift her attention back to her warm up exercises.
Back up in the stands, Frido carries Olivia out into the hallway, sets her down when she finds a quiet area and crouches down so that she is eye level with the little girl.
“Liv, can you tell me why you pushed Alex, making him fall over?”
Olivia's lips instantly started to quiver and tears formed in her eyes, “I’m sorry Dodo.”
Frido can’t resist hugging the little girl, she would do anything for her ‘niece’ but especially when she gets called the nickname that Olivia gave her when she couldn’t say her full name. It takes a couple minutes but Olivia finally stops crying, Frido wiping away the tear marks left on her cheeks.
“Alex kept saying that mommy was really mean and that it was good that she got kicked off the field. He was making me mad but but but..”
“Take some deep breaths, Liv.” Frido rubs the little girls back, knowing that Olivia had a tendency to get worked up and would have trouble getting her words out.
It takes 5 deep breaths before Olivia composes herself enough to talk again. “I am mad at mommy for being mean but I don’t like that Alex said that! He is mean too!”
Frido sighs, not wanting to overstep something that her moms should address, “He shouldn’t have said that to you but you know that you shouldn’t have pushed him. I am going to have to tell your moms what happened.”
Olivia drops her head, nodding softly.
“But for now do you want to go sit back down, we can move away from Alex and it could just be the three of us. I saw your mama start to warm up so when we get back she should be ready to play!”
Olivia nods her head again and Frido stands up and takes the little girl back into her arms when she reaches up wanting to be held.
They move down to the front row for the rest of the game which thankfully goes by pretty quickly for the little trio. Both kids have a small snack, Frido having to help Max with his fruit and cheerios. Olivia sat in the chair at the end of the row and quietly ate her snack and didn’t say much else the rest of the game.
As soon as the 5 minute stoppage time was announced, Frido packs up the diaper bag and takes both kids down toward the tunnel to get ready to go on the field. She briefly peeks into the locker room, hoping that Mapi might be in there but she didn’t see or hear anyone in there. It takes a few minutes of waiting in the hall before there starts to be people filtering down from the field.
“Ready to go see Mama?”
“Mamamama” Max mumbles, trying to fidget out of Frido’s arms.
Just like she was taught, Olivia holds on tight to her aunt’s hand as they walk out onto the pitch.
As soon as Jonathan finishes the team talk, Ingrid walks toward the tunnel wanting to make sure Olivia will be able to find her. Their usually outgoing and energetic daughter, who always sprints onto the field as soon as she sees them, is the complete opposite when she catches her eye across the field.
Olivia stays close to Frido until they finally reach Ingrid and she immediately reaches to be picked up by her mama.
“Hi sweetheart, are you okay?” Ingrid asks her daughter but looks over at her best friend with pleading eyes to know what happened.
Olivia shakes her head no, her head tucked into Ingrid’s neck. Ingrid is about to ask again when Alexia comes bouncing over with a huge smile on her face. Her smile drops when she senses some tension and her niece doesn’t react when she tries to say hello.
Alexia sees the somewhat pleading look in Ingrid’s eyes at Frido and decides to try and help out even though she doesn’t know what is going on. She moves so she is right behind Ingrid and could be face to face with Olivia if she were to open her eyes.
“Hola bebita, I need to find Patri and Pina, can you come help me?” Alexia tries, running a hand gently through Olivia’s hair.
Olivia looks over at Alexia but still shakes her head no, adjusting herself in Ingrid’s arms to hold on tighter.
Ingrid sighs, “we will be right back.” She walks quickly towards the tunnel, giving the fans screaming at her a small smile.
As soon as they get out far enough into the tunnel where there aren’t a bunch of people walking around, Ingrid sits down, forcing Olivia to stand and face her.
“Kjære, can you tell me what’s wrong now?”
Olivia shakes her head no again, lip wobbling as tears start to form in her eyes for the second time in the past hour.
Ingrid wants to push but she knows how emotional her daughter can be and she doesn’t want a full meltdown to happen right now. She settles for just hugging her daughter and telling her how much she loves her until she calms down.
5 minutes later they are walking back onto the field when she hears her son crying before she spots him. She shuts her eyes, taking a deep breath to try and settle her emotions. When she opens her eyes she sees Alexia walking over to her with the crying boy in her arms.
“Frido got pulled away to talk to Jona so I took him and he was fine but then he was looking around, I assume for you, and started crying and now won’t stop.” Alexia rushes out, clearly flustered by the crying.
Olivia puts her hands over her ears, something she has started to do everytime Max cries, claiming he is being too loud. Ingrid sets her down and takes Max into her arms instead, trying to shush him. A few of the players and staff look over at her with sympathetic eyes when he continues crying.
“Can you please take her for a few minutes, I am going to try and find Mapi so we can go home as soon as possible.” Ingrid asks, desperate to find her wife for help.
“I was told she was in the gym. I will bring her inside in 15 minutes.” Alexia reassures, picking up Olivia and whispering something in her ear that makes her smile, as they run off in the direction of Patri and Pina.
Ingrid breathes a sigh of relief knowing her daughter was in good hands and distracted from whatever happened. Max finally stops screaming when she starts to walk back inside but is still crying and repeatedly saying mama.
She knew that he wasn’t calling out for her and would only calm down for Mapi. It was a new phase they were going through that neither one of them were fond of. The past two weeks Max would only let Mapi console him when he was crying and when he noticed that she wasn’t around he would cry until he saw her.
They were lucky that they only had one major issue when they had an away game and the kids didn’t come. Frido was out of contention with her injury, so she stayed overnight and was forced to FaceTime them 2 hours before the game because Max had woken up from a nap calling out for Mapi and wouldn’t stop crying until he saw her on the screen. It took a lot longer than normal and Mapi had to read 2 books and sing his favorite spanish lullaby for him to relax until they were home the next morning.
On the way back to the gym, Ingrid stopped in the locker room to find Max’s stuffed lion that he loved to carry around and helped calm him down. She was thankful that he had settled to whining with little tears falling down his cheeks.
As soon as she steps in the gym, she sees her wife drenched in sweat, face red with the pinched look she gets when she’s mad. Ingrid takes yet another deep breath, readying herself for a conversation that she knows her wife will get agitated at.
Ingrid waits a minute for Mapi to rest before she announces herself, “Maria.”
“What?!” Mapi snaps, pulling out her headphones and turning around, annoyed at the interruption but softening slightly when she notices her son.
“Mamamamama!!!” Max babbles happily, arms reaching out for Mapi. Ingrid quickly transfers the baby into the tattooed arms, relieved that the boy immediately rests his head on his mothers shoulder with a smile.
“He needed you and only you, as usual these days,” Ingrid mumbles the last part sarcastically, letting the irritation of the past hour seep into her words.
Mapi immediately picks up on the tone, “what is that supposed to mean, you know I didn’t ask for this.”
“Nothing but we need to go home now. It's been an eventful last 20 minutes and our daughter needs to leave as soon as possible. We are going to have to just shower and everything at home.”
“I can’t leave now, I still have stuff I need to do here so I need another hour at least.” Mapi responds, still feeling the irritation in her from the game and knows that she needs to run and do drills on the field before she will feel ready to go home.
Ingrid tries her hardest to not get angry at Mapi but she knows she is fighting a losing battle because she really cannot deal with her wifes moodiness right now. She loves Mapi so much but she knows that when she gets upset or overwhelmed she still struggles with managing those emotions.
She wants to help her wife but her main priority at the moment has to be Olivia and figuring out what happened to make sure that she actually is doing okay.
“Fine, stay however long you want but he is staying with you.” Ingrid crosses her arms. Now that Max is in Mapi’s arms mixed with it getting to the time he naps, she knows it would only cause a tantrum and more stress on her.
“Ingrid, no I can’t do all this with him, please just take him.” Mapi might as well be begging and she thinks it works when Ingrid reaches back over to try and take Max but as soon as Max sees and feels that Ingrid is trying to take him, he immediately starts to scream, gripping at Mapi’s shirt to hang on.
Ingrid quickly lets go, taking a few steps back, watching how her son calms down when Mapi whispers reassuring words to him. “See, I couldn’t even take him if I wanted, so I will pack up his stuff to leave with his car seat in the locker room and you can figure out a way home.”
Mapi can see the exhaustion and hurt hiding in her wife's eyes but she is still too worked up to do anything but say okay back to her and start to figure out where she could put Max to finish her gym session. The game kicked off at noon so it was only around 230pm which meant they didn’t have any other plans the rest of the day and Mapi should be able to convince someone to drive her home.
Ingrid leans in leaving a kiss on Max’s cheek and whispering that she loves him and would see him later. She backs away, starting to walk toward the exit, calling over her shoulder, “Be home for dinner, remember Liv wanted your help on her family tree project.”
Mapi does remember being asked at breakfast if she could help her draw the little family tree that their preschool class wanted them all to do for their lesson on families. Olivia had seen her draw all the time and would request specific drawings that were hung around her room. Mapi hoped that Olivia would love art the way she did, ever since she was able to hold markers she would color in Mapi’s tattoos and recently had tried to draw pictures herself.
Mapi only calls out a quiet okay as she watches her wife walk out of the gym. She figures she needs to kill about 20 more minutes before everyone is off the pitch and cleared out of the stadium. She gets a yoga mat and sets it in front of the wall of mirrors with a few things she finds around the gym that could keep Max occupied.
While Mapi stays in the gym, Ingrid heads back toward the locker room where most of the team is back changing and showering. Right before she is able to walk in, Frido calls her name from down the hall where she seemed to also be walking toward the locker room.
“Hey, is Olivia still out there?” Ingrid asks.
“No, she should be with Alexia in the locker room, she still didn’t want to be around anyone so they went in about 5 minutes ago.”
“Oh good, we are going to leave once I pack up but can you please tell me what happened earlier?”
They move to a spot just around the corner of the hallway so that they wouldn’t get interrupted by anyone, “Alex and Olivia were watching the game and when Mapi got her red card he made a comment about how she was mean and shouldn’t be playing.”
Ingrid groans but stays quiet because she knows that there is more to the story. Frido continues, “Livvy got mad, pushed him and made him fall over but trust me he is perfectly fine. I took her into the hallway after and she started crying a bit but she calmed down pretty quickly. She said she was mad at him for saying what he did but also said that she was mad at Mapi for being mean.”
Ingrid drops her head in her hands, “she has a lot of feelings for a 4 year old, I don’t think she knows what to do with them. Another way she is just like her mom, who seems to be going through the same thing at the moment.”
Frido could see the stress radiating off of her best friend, wishing that there was a way to help but knows that it's an issue that Mapi and Ingrid will have to figure out for themselves. All she can do at the moment is wrap Ingrid in a tight hug and hope that it will at least remind her that she has a village of people behind her.
Frido pulls out of the hug but keeps Ingrid close with her hands on her friends shoulders,“Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”
“Thank you for that and for also watching both kids today, we are so grateful for you and they love their auntie.” Ingrid says, leading them back toward the locker room.
When they walk in, Ingrid is immediately greeted by the laugh of her daughter. Patri and Pina are chasing her around and once Patri catches her she tosses her into the air, putting the little girl on her shoulder, continuing to run away from Pina. As soon as Olivia sees her though, she wiggles on Patri’s shoulder to get down to be able to run right into Ingrid’s legs.
“Can we go home now mama?” Olivia pouts up at her.
Ingrid strokes her cheek and smiles down at her, “yes baby, let me get my stuff and put my other clothes on. Go play for 5 more minutes and then we can go.”
Olivia runs back over, launching herself onto Pina’s back and making her run around with her.
Ingrid packs up the few things that she has, the diaper bag, Olivia’s little backpack and quickly changes before she slips out to go and grab the carseat from the car for Mapi.
10 minutes later her bags are packed, the diaper back is put back into Mapi’s locker, along with Max’s car seat and Olivia is finishing her round of hugs with all the players that she likes to give out after every game.
Ingrid says her goodbyes before she takes Olivia’s hand and starts their walk out to the car. It’s not until they are leaving the parking garage that Olivia asks where Mapi and Max are.
“Mommy needed to do some extra training and Max wanted to stay with her so they will be home a little bit later.”
Olivia hums in response, seemingly as deep in thought as a 4 year old could be, “Can you play Anna and Elsa please mama?”
Ingrid wants to talk to her daughter but still knows she has to wait until there are no distractions and she isn’t driving. She queues up the Frozen soundtrack along with a few of the other Disney songs that she knows Olivia loves and spends the 20 minute drive home listening to the little voice behind her singing all the lyrics.
When they make it home, Ingrid sends Olivia into the playroom so she can play for a bit while she showers and does a few chores around the house.
Once Ingrid is in the shower, letting the hot water beat down on her face, she lets the pent up stress tears fall. She allows herself a few extra minutes in the shower to help her relax before she changes into a comfy tracksuit and starts a load of the kids' laundry.
A half hour later after she cleans up the toys in the living room, changes the sheets in Max’s crib and she quickly puts dinner in the oven to cook, she goes to find Olivia to finally talk to her.
Olivia is sitting on the floor in the playroom building towers with magnetic blocks when Ingrid comes in and gives her a big smile before joining her on the floor.
Olivia pushes the box of blocks closer to Ingrid, nonverbally asking her to play with her.
“Can we pause playing for a second and talk for a minute?”
The 4 year old puts the blocks she has in her hands back in the box, turning to face her mother, “Livvy, can you tell me now about what happened today?” Ingrid pries.
Olivia drops her head, looking at the carpet as she talks, “I was watching mommy play and then when she got into trouble, Alex said she was really mean and said she shouldn’t be allowed to play. Then I pushed him and he fell but he didn’t get hurt.” Olivia explains.
“It’s good that he didn’t get hurt but you know it’s wrong to push someone, even if you are upset.” Ingrid says firmly.
“I know mama, I'm sorry. Are you and mommy mad at me?” Olivia pouts, tears starting to form in her eyes.
Ingrid remains firm but softens as she continues, “I haven’t had a chance to talk to mommy about it yet but when she gets home I am going to have to tell her to talk about your consequences. I am not mad at you because you know that it was wrong and we expect that you won't do it ever again.”
“I won’t do it again, I promise mama!”
Ingrid pulls Olivia in for a hug, letting the little girl cling onto her and sit in her lap. “Auntie Frido did tell me that you told her that you are mad at mommy too?”
Olivia shrugs her shoulders, staying silent to try and not answer the question.
“Livvy, it's okay if you are mad at mommy. I am a little mad at her too because she shouldn’t have pushed that girl just like you shouldn’t have pushed Alex.” Ingrid says softly.
Olivia looks up at her to see if she was being serious. “Did you push Alex because you saw mommy do it?” Her daughter only nods in response. “Even if you saw mommy do something that doesn’t mean it's okay for you to do.”
“Why did she do it then if it was wrong?” Olivia asks.
Ingrid sighs, taking a moment to formulate how to answer. “Remember a few weeks ago when you had all those different feelings in your chest that made you overwhelmed? And how when mommy and I asked what was wrong you didn’t know how to tell us and you only felt better after you cried a little bit?”
Last Tuesday, Olivia had woken up at 5 am and had woken up her moms claiming she was ready for the day and she needed breakfast because she was hungry. Ingrid had gotten up with her and spent the entire morning keeping her daughter busy but it seemed that by noon Olivia was absolutely exhausted.
Mapi did her part helping, painting and coloring but had lunch plans with Alexia that she was about to leave for when Olivia started to melt down. She had started crying when Ingrid suggested that they go lay down in her room to try and sleep. Mapi then started packing her purse which caused even more crying and Olivia begging to go with her.
Mapi texted Alexia that she was going to be late and scooped Olivia up and walked her into her room. Max was taking his own nap so both Ingrid and Mapi squeezed onto the twin bed with their daughter in between them trying to calm her down. Olivia kept saying that she wanted to play more and wanted to go see her aunt because she wasn’t tired at all. It took 3 rounds of deep breaths, multiple reassurances that she didn't have to sleep and 5 books before Olivia was asleep and remained sleeping for the next 2.5 hours.
“I remember. So mommy was just tired?” Olivia questions.
“She probably was tired but I think she was upset with things happening in the game too and her emotions were too much for her to keep inside so she pushed the other player. Does that make sense?” Ingrid explains as best she can.
“I think so.”
“Good but also if you are upset with someone it's really important that you talk to that person about how you feel. Do you think that you would be able to do that with mommy?”
After Olivia answers with a yes, Ingrid decides that there is nothing else that they need to talk about before she has a conversation with her wife. Ingrid checks her phone to see if Mapi has sent her anything about when she would be home but there are no messages. She checks Mapi’s location and sees that she was still at the stadium, meaning that despite what she said she wouldn’t be home for dinner.
Ingrid doesn’t let herself get more upset in the moment, choosing to just take advantage of the 1 on 1 time she can dedicate to her daughter. They play with the magnetic blocks for another half hour and then they set up a mini picnic in the backyard for their dinner.
The two of them spend the rest of the night together, Olivia enjoying the quietness of the house without her brother crying or taking both her moms attention. Olivia requested that they watch Frozen and Ingrid is happy to oblige, making them a bowl of popcorn with a handful of m&ms mixed in as a treat.
Once the movie is over, Ingrid helps Olivia with her bath where they talk about what is going on at preschool the next day. Ingrid doesn’t ask about the family tree project because she knew it wasn’t due for another week and didn’t want her daughter to get upset about her mom forgetting to help.
After Ingrid reads a book in Norwegian, Spanish and English, the 4 year old is just about asleep. Ingrid flicks on the nightlight and turns off the overhead light before she walks back over to the bed and kneels on the side of it.
“Goodnight sweetheart, I love you so much.” Ingrid runs a hand through the smooth, almost dry, brown hair and leaves a kiss on her forehead.
A pair of heavy, green eyes open back up, “Mama? Why aren’t mommy and Max home yet? Are you sure they aren’t mad at me?”
“No they aren’t mad at you, I promise. They are having a mommy and Max night just the two of them just like you and I had tonight.” Ingrid replies softly, making up the last part knowing that her daughter would believe it and not get her reworked up just as she was falling asleep.
Olivia takes a few long blinks, having to think extra hard with how tired she is. “Oh okay. Mommy always says goodnight but she didn’t call like she usually does when you are away on a trip.”
Ingrid can’t help but hear the sadness in the little voice and she feels her own heart break at the statement. “I will make sure she comes and says goodnight when she gets home.”
Olivia seems content with that answer, “Thank you mama, can you lay with me?”
Ingrid stands and lays down on top of the covers, knowing she will only have to stay about 5 minutes considering the way that her daughters eyes couldn't stay open. Olivia curls into her, mumbling a soft ‘love you’ before her breathing evens out.
She lands up staying for 10 minutes, letting herself enjoy the quietness of the room before she gently removes herself from the bed and heads back into the living room. The midfielder flips on the TV, laying down on the couch to wait for her wife and son to get home.
The sound of the front door closing is what lands up startling her awake. When she checks her phone and sees that it's 10:30 pm, she can’t help but let out a frustrated huff at the thought of her 11 month old being out this long.
Mapi falters when she gets into the living room, not expecting her wife to still be awake. “Oh, you’re still awake.” Mapi states quietly, starting to unstrap the sleeping baby to bring him into his room.
Ingrid scoffs, not saying anything in response but walking over and pushing Mapi out of the way so that she can take Max out herself. She may not be Max’s favorite but she missed him and needed to hold him for a few minutes.
“He has a new diaper and his pajamas are already on, he can just be put down,” Mapi tells her wife softly, still not getting a response.
Ingrid turns, heading down the hallway and just like with Olivia, she turns on the night light in addition to the baby monitor when she gets into the room. She just stands, swaying gently with her son for a few minutes, breathing in the baby scent that still lingers. When she puts him in his crib, he whimpers but she shushes him and puts a soft hand on chest to soothe him quickly.
As soon as she is satisfied that her son won’t wake up, Ingrid finds Mapi in the kitchen washing the empty snack containers and bottles from the diaper bag. The defender turns at the sound of her wife’s footsteps, pausing the task to turn and look at her.
“He didn’t wake up?” Mapi asks.
Ingrid’s face remains stoic, arms crossed with her back leaning against the counter, “no.”
Mapi cringes at the tone, she knew that she would be coming home to an unhappy partner but didn't expect such a hard tone right away. She opens her mouth to explain where she had been but closes it at the sight of Ingrid’s hand raising to stop her.
Ingrid gestures to the few dishes in the sink, “this can all wait until tomorrow but there is a lot that we need to talk about right now.”
“Ingrid, I…” Mapi starts, but is quickly cut off again.
“No, stop. I am going to get ready for bed and you can meet me in the bedroom but you need to say goodnight to your daughter before I can speak to you.”
Mapi doesn’t bother to try and answer, just drying off her hands and walking straight to her daughter’s room. She quietly opens the door, walking over to whisper goodnight and leave a soft kiss to her forehead.
When Mapi walks into their bedroom, Ingrid is walking out of the bathroom, slipping into her side of the bed and not waiting a second longer to talk, “Where were you?”