They shouldn’t have been this surprised. Spain playing Norway wasn’t actually that impossible but as it had been so many years since the last encounter, when the international fixture list came out for the next month, Marta and Caroline were still surprised.
It was during lunch at the Barca facility, not many players were there but the ones that were giggling and looking at them as they sat down across from Pina at the lunch table.
‘What??’
‘Has something happened I wasn’t aware of?’
Both were met with eye rolls, and Pina shoved her phone into their faces, ‘can you see nowww???’
‘Ohhh’ Caroline looked over, the first one to get it, and had the delight of seeing Marta’s face as the realisation crossed over.
‘Ahhh, Spain is playing Norway.’
‘Yesss, well done capitana’ as Pina affectionately rolled her eyes at how long it took to click for the defender. ‘It means us Spanish lot are up against Caro and Ingrid.’
‘Ooooooh’ all three turned and saw Frido and Ana grinning at the end of the table.
Pina rolled her eyes and turned back to the pair in front of her, ‘It’ll be a good game though, we’ve got injured players back and you seem to be sorting yourself out there,’ pointing her fork at Caro.
‘Yeah I mean it’s still not great but we have won the last two games, so that’s something I guess.’ Caro shrugged her shoulders.
Marta nudged the Norwegian and laughed, ‘And it’s going to be funny playing against you.’
‘Have you ever played against each other?’ Pina asked, eyebrows furrowed trying to remember if either of them had ever brought it up.
‘Haha, once, yeah.’ Caroline smiled, looking at Marta blushing. ‘It was years ago, in the Euros in 2013. Do you want to say who won?’
‘Ah no, it wasn’t Norway was it?!’ Pina sounded gutted.
Caro giggled, ‘Yeah it was. 3-1. But never bring it up to Irene, she scored a shocker of an own goal.’
‘Oh dam, I had forgotten about that,’ Marta chuckled. ‘It was terrible. To be honest, none of us had a great game.’
‘Speak for yourself, we were brilliant,’ the Norwegian grinned again. ‘It was my first Euros as well, we got to the final, I’ve got the silver medal somewhere. I was only 18.’
‘Wow, fair play. And what I’m hearing is that this game is going to be a little bit of a feisty for the two of you, huh.’ Pina sat back, crossing her arms and smirking.
‘Ahh, it’ll be fine.’ Marta looked at Caroline, trying to communicate with her eyes, realising that Pina was, in her own way, kinda right.
Not that she felt any worries to begin with, Marta did feel a whole lot of love from her partner as she looked back at her, giving a small smile.
‘Yeah, we’re always going to be fine.’
Pina rolled her eyes and smirked, getting up and taking her plate, ‘God, you two make me feel very single.’
Marta turned and faced Caroline properly, looking at her face where she found only a smile and happy eyes looking at her, ‘Later?’
Caro nodded her head, ‘Later.’
Marta smiled gently and briefly gave a kiss on Caroline’s shoulder and it never mattered how long they’d been dating, like always a blush appeared on the Norwegian’s face.
‘Have you seen the international games list??!! We’ve got Sweden and the USA!! I’m going to be knackered!!’
Marta and Caroline looked up in amusement to see Keira sitting down and rattling on about England’s games; they were both fond of the English midfielder who they knew well enough by now that when Keira got stressed, she tended to talk…. alot.
They looked at each other, smirking, and turned properly to see if they could calm down a particularly stressed Keira.
///
They got back from training, Marta throwing her bag down and practically running into the bedroom. Caroline moved more slowly, pulling her clothes off and throwing them into the washing basket, making a mental note that they really needed to do some laundry and put in her most comfortable clothes.
She got herself set up on the sofa, while Marta went running around the kitchen and eventually came in and plonked herself next to Caroline, as the winger looked round in confusion as Marta sat as close as humanly possible to the Norwegian with a big grin on her face and her arms round Caro; Marta usually only was this clingy for the few days before Caroline was due to go away with Norway, and that wasn’t down to happen for another month.
‘You ok there?’ And Marta only snuggled in closer, happily sighing as she rested her head on Caroline’s shoulder.
‘Anything you wanna tell me?’
Marta looked up at Caro with a grin and giggled, ‘I’m just really happy.’
Caroline ran through all the things that had happened that day and none of them she thought would explain how happy her girlfriend was, ‘You’re really happy about Spain playing Norway? Is that it?’
Marta laughed again, patting the Norwegian’s head, lowering her voice to a whisper, ‘I get to see you on international break.’
Caroline looked at Marta for a second at her smiling face, ‘You know what’ pulling her girlfriend on her lap and leaning forward, whispering into her partner’s lips, ‘that hadn’t crossed my mind.’
////
She walked out the room, looking to take a minute. It wasn’t great. While Norway were, of course, very good, it should have been a game that Spain should have won and to lose it, so close to Euros, was gutting.
The defender stood there, arms wrapped around herself, thinking about the shitshow that was happening inside the dressing room, and despite all of it, really wanting to see Caroline.
She saw the Norwegian at the start, when they were warming up of course, but when the defender had gone through everyone lining up to get to the subs bench, it was an odd feeling passing her partner on the way, wearing a different top than her, standing in the other line, captaining another team.
They hadn’t been on the pitch playing at the same time, although they’d hugged at the final whistle; the Spaniard got on the pitch for the last 10 mins and by that time, Caroline had been subbed. It meant that Marta had got to spend the match watching her team, and by extension Caroline, play.
The winger had played amazing; she ran the game, everything that Norway had done well had gone through her, and even though she was someone a lot of the team played with week in week out, the Norwegian showed just how good she is by dribbling through everyone.
As she thought of her partner, the defender couldn’t help but smile a little bit but the Spanish situation was still in the back of her mind, looking down and seeing her bright red shorts and socks (she’d taken her shirt off the minute she’d gotten in the changing room).
‘You still want to see me?’ Marta looked up to see Caroline wearing a small smile on her face, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. She was still in her match kit, minus the boots, and she had baby hairs coming out her ponytail. Marta didn’t think she’d ever looked more beautiful.
Smiling, when she took the four steps it took to be in front of Caro, she reached out, her fingers hooking into the waistband of the Norwegian’s shorts to pull her against herself. Caro let out a surprised hum, but put her hands on Marta’s shoulders as the Spaniard leaned in.
‘I always want to see the woman I fell in love with.’ Marta whispered, and Caro’s smile grew, even more as the defender pressed her lips into hers.