golden blonde¹

he had known

mid november 2022
"water break, quickly!" one of their coaches yelled. all running halted as the majority of the spanish players hunched over, hands on their knees as their body heaved up and down.

elena was among them.

she shouldn't have played against leicester for more than 45 minutes. her body wasn't feeling exactly 100%, and she was fairly convinced she had caught a cold.

as she walks over to grab a drink, she starts coughing loudly, her body convulsing.

"holy shit, el. are you okay?" salma asks as she hands elena a bottle of water. elena wants to shake her head, she wants to tell someone that she needs to sit out, that she's not feeling well in the slightest.

but that hadn't ended well for claudia a year ago, it surely wouldn't have worked now.

besides, she had a game to prepare for.

"i'm fine." elena squirts water into her mouth, coughing again.

"are you sure? your eyes seem really puffy," maite chimes in. more of the girls start surrounding her, hounding her with questions that elena can't begin to tell if they're being genuine or not.

"is everything okay over there!?" jorge barks from the other end of the field.

it's almost comical how the group parts away from the teenager like the red sea.

"we're fine!" ivana replies as the girls start jogging back to return to the training session.

the arsenal player watches as her teammates leave her one by one, with her being the last one to return to the session.

later that night, elena is under the covers with a pile tissues on her bed. she's pulled up some film that one of the coaches sent out earlier in the day, watching it on her laptop.

a knock on her door has her groaning; it couldn't have been jorge though, so that was a minor positive. it was far too early for him to be checking locks on doors. elena grabbed a spare blanket she had brought, wrapping it around herself before she trudged slowly over to the door.

laia and salma are on the other end, the latter holding a takeout bag and codina texting away on her phone.

"we brought food," salma smiles gently.

"oh, you really do look miserable," laia laughs softly. elena sends a death glare in her direction, but she's far too ill to say something back. she lets the both of them in her room before closing the door with a soft click.

"we brought medicine as well," salma says taking some cough syrup out from the bag.

"what's got codina in such a good mood?" elena grumbles sleepily.

"please, i'd love to know as well," salma looks towards the 22 year old.

"i hardly see how it's any of your business," the defender smirks easily.

"mmm, she's getting laid for sure," elena whispers as salma hands her a takeout box. the winger laughs loudly, which causes elena to giggle along with her.

"some of the madrid girls went out to the taco place nearby, i told them to get something for you as well," laia replies kindly.

"graciés," elena whispers quietly, actually quite grateful for the two girls in her room. they made camp feel a little less lonely.

the three eat their meal, talking with one another about their upcoming games, catching up with each others lives. elena wanted to hear how the barcelona girls were faring, salma and laia wanted to know what arsenal was like.