A Birthday In Tokyo
July 16, 2021, USWNT, Olympic Village, Tokyo
"Good morning, Lloyd."
Carli Lloyd sat up with a gasp, eyeing the interloper warily. "Kate."
Kate Markgraf, general manager for the USWNT and a retired defender herself - she and Carli had contested one World Cup and one Olympics in uniform together - came to sit down on the chair by Carli's bed. "Sleep well, kiddo?"
Carli snorted. "You're five years older than me."
"Lucky you still have someone who is, little one," Kate brushed a hand over Carli's tousled hair. "Come on, sleeping beauty, get up. Bring me your hairbrush."
"Whatever you think I did, it was Heath's fault," Carli joked. It usually was Tobin's fault after all, not that Tobin minded admitting it.
Kate rolled her eyes. "Probably. You want me to ask Wagner what she thinks? Or Foudy? They're here." She didn't miss the paler shade that the name 'Foudy' brought to Carli's face. "Okay, okay, not Foudy," she amended, and Carli let out a breath of relief. She got out of bed, smoothing the covers down, and went to the dressing table. Her hand had just wrapped around the handle of the brush when she stopped and turned to look at Kate.
"What do you need my hairbrush for?"
Kate just smirked. "Bring it here, Lloyd."
Carli felt her stomach drop as Kate gave her that look. She obeyed quickly, nevertheless; experience with Kate had taught her that the former defender had a low tolerance for disobedience, even if Kate was just playing with them. And there was always the chance she'd call Foudy...who would have no problem giving Carli a real lesson in front of Kate. Kate was one of the few people who knew what their relationship had been - still sometimes was - like.
As these thoughts spun in Carli's mind, her feet carried her back to Kate almost without conscious thought. She only realized where she was when Kate's hand closed on her wrist, gently tugging the hairbrush free.
"You know how you have to be for me, little one."
Carli swallowed. "Is the door locked?" she asked.
Kate laughed gently. "Afraid of giving someone a show, hmm? Don't you worry, I've taken care of everything. Now come on, no stalling, you're well old enough to know better, little one."
Carli decided not to comment on the incongruity of that statement, and simply obeyed with a sigh, settling over Kate's lap on the bed. She flinched at the gentle smack to her hip, and lifted up, swallowing as her pajama bottoms and knickers were pulled down together. She'd forgotten Kate nearly always spanked bare. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Blessedly, it was Kate's hand that landed those swats, and she was going gently, hardly more than firm pats. Half a dozen to each bottom cheek, and she moved her hand lower. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four...
By the end of the second dozen, Carli's sit spots were beginning to warm up, and then there was a third, Kate's hand on her undercurves, making Carli squirm. Thirty-six fell and then Carli froze.
Kate had picked up the brush from the middle of Carli's back, where she'd left it. Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine swatted down across the middle of her bottom, each a firm tap. Carli's bottom was definitely beginning to sting, if only just. Forty. The one real spank landed solidly atop the others, eliciting a yelp from Carli, and then Kate pulled her upright, tugging her clothes back into place.
"Hey, hey, little one, it's okay, you're Katie's big girl, it's alright, honey," she soothed, and Carli blushed, remembering her first spanking from Katie so many years ago. It was clear Katie remembered, too.
(Begin flashback, Beijing Olympics, 2008)
August 21, 2008, Beijing, China
It's coming home.Carli Lloyd examined her gold medal, watched Christie Rampone shaking hands with the Brazilian captain. The silver medals the Brazilians wore looked good, in Carli's opinion. Especially in Carli's opinion. The twenty-six-year-old preened a little, and turned to Heather Ann O’Reilly, her fellow midfielder, who the team called HAO (pronounced hey-oh.) "Did you see that, HAO?" she asked, eyes gleaming. "That was me, I made that goal."
HAO nodded excitedly. "It was so good, Carli." She hugged her older friend. "Only, I think Kate wants a word."
Carli blinked, gaze flickering uncertainly as Kate Markgraf's hand closed on her shoulder. "Katie?"
"Come on, Lloyd." Christie's friend and second - and also second-eldest on the team after Christie - she was not to be disobeyed. Carli followed, expression wary. HAO trotted quickly after them, though she hadn't been asked along. "Carli Anne Lloyd," Kate said firmly once they - and HAO - were alone in the locker room. "What have you been told about bragging?"
Carli shifted uncomfortably, suddenly remembering the match against Japan in the group stage. They had won 1-0 then, too, and like now, it had been her goal. "Um...not to?" she ventured, getting a short laugh from Kate.
"How eloquent." Kate folded her arms. "Yes, you were told not to, little girl. What did Christie do to you for it?"
Now Carli was blushing. "She, um....she spanked me." Carli stared at the floor.
"Well, I should think so. There is no 'I' in 'team', Carli Anne Lloyd, you know better. And since Christie's spanking clearly wasn't memorable enough it would seem a repeat lesson is in order."
"It was enough," Carli protested. "You don't have to, Katie."
"M-hmmm. You wouldn't say that to Foudy now, would you?" Carli shook her head. "Then come on." Kate propped her foot up on the bench. "Drop them and over."
Swallowing hard, Carli obeyed the order, and only when Kate had Carli securely in position did the first smack fall.
"Ow!" Carli yelped at the firm spank.
"We're just getting started, little one. Best you save it," Kate informed the unhappy midfielder as she continued the spanking with her hand. Carli had thought being spanked by Christie was bad. Kate was worse. Kate seemed to know intuitively where to land each spank to get the most reaction, and just what to say to provoke indignant squeals and protests from her unhappy charge. Sass, of course, earned even more spanks, and Kate smirked as she promised Carli extras.
"What did I ever do to you, Katie?" Carli protested tearfully as her bottom heated toward scarlet.
"To me? Oh no, honey," Katie cooed, finally finding a bit of sympathy for her sobbing penitent. "It wasn't what you did to me. It was what you did to you, little one."
"M-me?" Carli yelped and kicked as Kate moved her hand lower. "D-don't understand."
"Shh, oh, of course you don't, do you, honey," Kate murmured. "It's okay, precious girl, you will. Katie will help you understand. When you act like your actions are more important than the team's actions, you might have people thinking you're self centered, not a team player. That you think you're too good for our team, hmm?"
"O-oh, I don't think that!" Carli protested. "I don't!"
"Oh, I know that, sweetheart." Katie patted her bottom gently. "But the rest of the team might not. It was arrogant, Carli, even if you didn't mean to be arrogant. And you know what arrogance gets girls on this team."
Carli gulped back a sob. "Spanked. I know. You're doing it."
Kate rolled her eyes and gave Carli's bottom another gentle pat. "M-hmm. But a second spanking in the same tournament, sweetheart? Yellow cards are one thing, but what does two yellows make?"
Carli stiffened over Kate's lap. "R-red."
"That's right," Kate agreed. "And little girls who get red cards get red, hot, sore bottoms. And little girls who get red cards in Olympic finals get paddled until they can't sit for a week."
Carli's head jerked up. "Kate!"
"Oh, I know, pet. But rules are rules." Kate patted Carli's head. "Go get it for me, will you, HAO?"
HAO blushed, but did as she was told, if only because she very much did not want to be next. When Heather returned with the USWNT paddle and handed it over, she sat on the floor, facing Carli, and took her friend's hands in hers, pressing her forehead to Carli's. "Sorry," she whispered. "But you know, it's Kate."
"I know," Carli replied unhappily. She clung to HAO, jerking and kicking as her paddling began. Carli sobbed on HAO's shoulder, letting the younger girl comfort her as every inch of her bottom was summarily lit on fire. Or at least that's what it felt like. Carli wasn't sure when Kate stopped paddling her, or how many spanks she'd been given, but she sobbed harder as her clothes were settled back into place over the scorched flesh. "S-sorry Kate, sorry, I'll never be bad again, I swear."
"Never arrogant again at least," Kate agreed, drawing Carli up into her arms. "Shh, it's okay, honey, I have you, there now, you took your paddling so well, just like my brave girl. It's alright, you'll be okay."
"D-did you really make it so I can't sit for a week?" Carli asked plaintively, when her sobs had slowed.
"Not really, pet," Kate soothed her. "You'll probably be somewhat tender for the week, but the worst will be over in a day or two. I know it's a lot, Carli, honey, but if you're going to be representing our team in front of the whole world, if you're going to be captain someday - and I think you are - then you have to learn."
"I'd like to be captain," Carli agreed softly. "But this is the part I wouldn't like."
Kate tucked Carli's head under her chin, supporting the girl in her lap so her scorched bottom wasn't holding any weight.
"Of course you wouldn't take any pleasure out of the punishment, sweetheart. I know. You're not like that. But it would feel good to know you're helping your girls learn a lesson, so they can do better, and be better."
"I'll try my best," Carli promised Kate. And she had.
(end flashback - back to "2020" Tokyo Olympics)
Back in the present, in Tokyo, Kate was holding Carli again, reflecting on that day thirteen years ago, their final Olympics together. Megan Rapinoe had inherited Kate's number fifteen, and had proved an able second to Carli, who had been Captain at the Rio Olympics herself, just eight years after that encounter. "Okay now, Lloyd? I didn't spank you too hard?"
"Yes, and no, in that order," Carli mumbled, blushing. "I'm alright, Katie."
"Good girl," Kate soothed. "It's okay. The world's in a weird place right now, but we've got this. Everything's gonna be okay."