in every universe (one shot-s) | JENLISA

no kiss was softer (softer than this)

four times lisa accidentally proposes to jennie and one time it's for real (i rlly like imagining the two of them playing soccer n it's like the cutest thing ever)

one.

The first time, it's a joke.

They're at a summer camp soccer clinic together—just outside of the town, no cameras or media teams around, feeling sweaty and loose and way more focused on trying to teach a bunch of bouncy seven to nine year-olds to get a ball into the back of the net than on each other.

They've been here every single day for the past week, already; getting to know the kids, running around with them, helping them improve their soccer skills—

And while Lisa usually really, really loves this—loves seeing the way they smile when they manage to get that perfect shot on goal, loves when she can see their competitiveness flare up, the way they're having fun with each other—right now, she wishes she was as far away from this place as possible.

It happens when she's busy trying to position about a dozen of them in a straight line to have them each take a penalty kick.

She's about to give the first kid in line a go-ahead thumbs up, when all of a sudden, one of the girls standing closest to her pulls on her shirt and says, "Are you and Jennie in love?"

Lisa chokes a little bit on the air. "Aria—where did you... uh, who... what..."

She trails off, cringes inwardly at herself, and immediately wishes Jennie was here to help her out. But Jennie is on the other side of the pitch, setting up games, and Aria's still got her hand on the hem of her shirt.

She doesn't seem too fazed about Lisa's incoherent answer. She just pushes her hair out of her face, and then says, "Yesterday, I saw you and Jennie holding hands when you were walking back to your car, and then I told Julia, and she thought I was right because her two aunts are also in love and they hold hands a lot. But then at lunch, Oliver said that you can't be in love because you are a girl and Jennie is also a girl."

Oh, god.

Lisa takes a deep breath.

"Oh... well..." she says slowly. "Yeah, I—uh—well, I am a girl and Jennie is also a girl..." Aria narrows her eyes a little bit, and Lisa panics. "And girls can be in love," she says quickly. "With each other. So Oliver is wrong about that."

Aria puts her foot on the ball. "But are you?"

"Hm?" Lisa hums, pretending she doesn't hear the question, pretending to be focused on the front of the line. "Keep it moving! Jordan, you're up next."

Aria says, "Lisa—"

But then, by some miraculous trick of the universe, Jordan ends up tripping on his own soccer ball, and Lisa hurries over to help him up, effectively dodging the end of the conversation.

She can feel that she's blushing.

It's not that the kids are not allowed to know—it's that they're seven; she'd never even considered that they could know.

She glances over to the other side of the field, tries to catch Jennie's eyes, but her girlfriend is busy overseeing five vs. five games—looking so unfairly good in her black shorts, with her hair pulled back tight, so beautiful and gorgeous and perfect, skin so smooth and—
Ugh.

She is in love. 

Lisa takes a breath, hopes none of the kids have seen her staring, and decides to leave it. They're kids. They're seven. Tomorrow, Aria will have forgotten.