football | one shots

Turin, Berlin > Toni Kroos

The young Argentinian stood rooted to the ground, scanning the unfamiliar surroundings of the airport for her brother, Paulo.

She had never been to Italy, so she had absolutely no idea what to expect. But as she studied the signage, something felt very odd. Mareeda looked around, hoping to find someone she could bombard her questions with.

"I'm sorry," someone mumbled as they bumped into her luggage. The man flashed her an apologetic smile, before dragging his luggage free from hers. "Wait," she stopped him before he could leave.

The man raised his eyebrows questioningly, stopping where he was. "Sorry to bother you, but do you know how I can get to Juventus stadium?" She asked, reaching into her bag for the map Paulo had given her.

When she looked up at him again, he had on his face a look of complete and utter confusion. "Juventus, like in Italy?" He repeated, staring at her as if she had just spoken gibberish. Brushing the look of uncertainty on his face aside, she nodded, "yeah, like in Turin. Here."

He furrowed his eyebrows at her response, "you do know you are in Berlin right?" Mareeda's mouth fell agape as it suddenly hit her why she had this extremely odd feeling from before. "You mean like, Germany?" She probed, scratching the back of her head in frustration.

The man eyed her curiously, "yes," he simply replied. Mareeda cursed under a breath, holding her fringe up from her face as she fished out her phone. It took exactly three rings before Paulo answered the phone.

"Mareeda?" Paulo's voice greeted her from the other end. But Mareeda wasted no time with greetings. "Paulo, what am I doing in Germany?" She reprimanded, her eyes meeting the ones of the man beside her.

Paulo didn't reply her immediately. Instead, she got in response his stifled giggling. "Why are you laughing?" She exhaled furiously. Why was he laughing at a time of crisis like this? "I can't believe -" Paulo began, pausing to catch his breath, "you're actually in Berlin."

Mareeda glanced at the man, who watched her curiously, flashing her a spur-of-the-moment smile. "What did you do, Paulo?" She demanded, resting her free hand on her hip.

Paulo chuckled again, before explaining to the confused Mareeda what exactly was going on. After that, she spent the next ten minutes spewing vulgarities at him in Spanish, for the censorship of the German man in front of her.

When she hung up, she sighed, still unable to comprehend how she had fell for her brother's prank and landed in Germany. The man in front of her smiled in amusement, and she knew that he too was stifling a giggle.

She frowned at him, "you understood me?" He grinned, "a little. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did your brother send you to Germany instead of Italy as a prank?"

Mareeda crossed her arms over her torso, pursing her lips together. "I hate him," she scoffed. The man chuckled, eventually smiling at her sympathetically. As she watched him, she couldn't help the smile that formed on her own face.

There she stood, in an airport in Berlin with a complete stranger, laughing together about her absolutely rotten luck. "So what are you going to do?" He finally asked.

Mareeda shrugged, resting her arm on her luggage. "Probably mope around the airport endlessly until my brother sends me a ticket to Italy," she quipped, flashing him a smirk, "Not that I want to see him or anything. I hate him right now."

"Do you want to come with me?" He offered. She shot him a cautionary sideways glance, "excuse me?" He held up his hands slightly, as if in surrender, "since you're already in Germany, why not play tourist? I can be your tour guide."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You could very well be a serial killer," she pointed out. The man chuckled, amused. "Hey, I just got off a plane from Madrid. If I wanted to kill, I'd need a solid ten hour nap first," he joked, prompting Mareeda to giggle in response.

"You'd be pretty charming for a serial killer you know that?" She smiled, to which the man gave a brief nod in reply, a warm smile plastered across his face.

"Okay then, Mr tour guide," she eventually decided, picking up her cap and putting it on, "where to?" The man laughed, as he began heading for the exit. "My hometown, Greifswald," he spoke excitedly, "you'll love it there."

"I'm Toni, by the way," he introduced as Mareeda began to follow suit. "Mareeda," she returned, "Mareeda Dybala."

He turned to flash her a smile, interlocking his gorgeous blue eyes with her emerald green ones. She bit her lip, feeling the butterflies in her stomach rising. Suddenly she was mentally thanking Paulo for his stupid prank.

"So are you actually a tour guide?"

"No, I'm a footballer."

"No way! So is my good for nothing brother!"

✕

GAH I love him. This is one of those weird story ideas that I kinda just dove right into HAHA. As requested by thediehardmadridista! Hope you liked it! Thank you so much for reading, as always ❤ ☺️

Hope you guys could check out my Leon Goretzka story if you haven't already! :)