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footballslash femmeslash exchange is now live! people should go read and comment on everything, especially the one written for me by the gracious ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
albion_lass. this is particularly crucial because I am absolutely DROWNING in schoolwork right now and can't even afford the time to read and appreciate it properly myself yet ;_; UGH WHY DO I ALWAYS PROCRASTINATE WHY WHY WHY
but this is not a post about me. LADYBALLERS! ENJOY.
title: three scenes that didn't make it into jill scott's world cup diary
fandom: football RPF
pairing: Alex Scott/Kelly Smith
rating: PG-13
word count: 1650
summary: England at the 2011 Women's World Cup: two wins, one draw, one soul-crushing loss, and an infinite supply of shenanigans.
notes: originally posted here as part offootballslash's Ladyballer Fic Exchange, and beta'd by the peerless khoshgeleh_16. further explanatory notes at the end of the fic!
i.
Kelly fell asleep on the plane to Germany. She was good at that, sleeping on planes and trains and buses: necessity of a lifetime of traveling to games, she'd say, except Alex had done that all her life too and she still hated flying with a visceral terror that made her clutch Kelly's hand during takeoff and left her feeling vaguely sick for the rest of the flight. But she'd had her whole life to get used to that, and she had her iPad and her headphones and most of their teammates were awake if she'd wanted to talk to somebody. She could have kept holding Kelly's hand until they landed, if she'd really felt like it; Kelly could sleep through that too. Kelly would probably sleep through the apocalypse.
That meant Kelly was still dead to the world when the flight attendant came by with the drinks trolley, but it was just as well: she asked if they wanted beer or wine or a cocktail, flight attendants always asked and most of the time they didn't notice when Alex tried to cut them off. Alex asked for orange juice and biscuits for Kel and water and a packet of pretzels for herself and made room for all of it on her tray table until Kelly woke up.
"Wish Keith would do that for me when we travel," Faye said lightly from across the aisle; "I can't shut my eyes for a nap or he eats all my biscuits too. Got the short end of the stick, me," and Alex knew she didn't mean anything by it and it was the flight making her cranky, it was just Faye, but she had to force herself not tense up.
"So I'm a catch, is what you're saying?" She managed to keep her tone joking.
"Wouldn't go that far," Jill said from Faye's other side, half-snorting a laugh, and woke Kelly up.
"Wazzat?" she asked, a little fuzzily.
"Nothing, sit up and drink your orange juice," Alex said.
"'s there biscuits?"
"Do I look like your mum? If you wanted biscuits maybe you should have been awake to ask for them."
Kelly finally sat up and opened her eyes. "Oh, there they are," she said, ripping into the packet. "Thanks."
"Oi, maybe those were for me, you greedy cow!"
"Nah. You don't even like biscuits, anyroad." Kelly smiled around a mouthful of crumbs and patted Alex's knee under the tray. "Get some sleep, yeah? No use fretting. We'll be on the ground soon enough."
It didn't really help with the fear that the plane was going to crash and leave them all dead in a flaming wreck, but Alex still spent the rest of the flight concentrating on the warmth of Kelly's hand on her leg. At least it gave her something nice to focus on.
ii.
"Oi, Scotty, you can't just make a cuppa for yourself! What about the rest of us poor thirsty souls?"
"It's for Kells," Alex said absent-mindedly. "Where'd you lot put the milk?"
"Ooooh!"
"How come you never make me tea, Scotty?"
"Right, unfair!"
"It's in the door of the refrigerator," Fara interrupted the cat-calling without looking up from her laptop.
Jill got up from the couch and settled her chin on Alex's shoulder to watch as she brewed Kelly's tea with the ease of long experience. "I just want you to know," Jill said, mock-seriously, "that if you ever get sick of Kelly you can always come to Everton and be my wife for a change. I swear I will treat you like a queen."
"Jill," Fara snapped, slamming her laptop shut. "No taunting the marrieds. You know the rules."
"I wasn't -- !" Jill said indignantly.
"You were a bit," Casey said.
"Yeah," Unitt agreed, glancing up from her phone.
"I was serious," Jill argued.
"Serious about what?" Kelly asked as she came into the rec room. "Thought you'd got lost, Scotty," she said, accepting her cup of tea.
"About whisking your wife away from this tea-making servitude to a life of luxury with me in Liverpool," Jill declaimed.
"Life of luxury? In Liverpool?" Yanks, who'd stayed out of things so far, let out an audible snort. Casey and Eni both giggled.
"Hey! Liverpool is a perfectly nice city! Brownie, tell 'er -- Fara! Unitt!"
"I'm not getting involved in this," Fara said. She'd opened her laptop back up and was once again glued to whatever game she was watching.
"Sorry, but it really is a bit of a shithole," Unitt said apologetically. "And America's all exotic, too, innit? Dunno the weather, I guess, but it can't really get any worse, can it? I wouldn't leave America to come live in Liverpool."
Jill looked betrayed. "Traitors," she hissed. "Traitors to your city. You too, Brownie. I'll remember this."
"Makes no difference anyway," Kelly said. "Wouldn't be much of a wife if I didn't trust her not to run off on me when a younger and prettier bird comes calling. You up for a game of table tennis, Scotty?"
"Only if you're up for a crushing defeat," Alex said, grinning.
"We'll see who crushes who." Kelly leaned into Alex's side for a moment and smiled down at her. "Wouldn't run off on you, either," she added quietly.
"You're only saying that because you like how I make your tea."
Kelly sipped theatrically from her cup and took her time about swallowing. "Well," she said at last. "Not only that."
iii.
Jill and Anita had been running around the hotel yammering on about bugs in Fara's room all evening, which Alex was fairly confident would keep anyone who felt like leaving their room occupied and also meant Anita wasn't in the room she shared with Kelly. "Kells?" she called softly, knocking on their door. "It's me."
Kelly didn't answer, and for a moment Alex thought she might be asleep, but then there was a shuffling sound and the door opened. "Go on then, if you're coming in," Kelly said ungraciously, and didn't wait to see if Alex did before she retreated back to her bed and flopped down onto it, staring up at the ceiling. Alex took a deep breath and fixed a smile on her face before sitting beside her. "God," Kelly said. "I want a drink."
"Well, you can't have one," Alex said. She didn't scream, but it was a near thing. It wasn't fucking fair of Kelly to pull this now, she thought, like she wasn't disappointed too, like it didn't eat at her to know that no matter what she did she couldn't make Kelly forget about the bloody drink. Maybe once she would have said something stupid, like "why can't I be enough for you," but Alex was older now. "I'll get you a cuppa and some biscuits if you want."
"Did I fucking ask for -- oh, Alex," Kelly sighed, suddenly deflating. She rolled over and pushed her face into the pillow, muffling her voice almost to the point of incomprehensibility. "I'm sorry, I'm being a fucking awful cunt, aren't I."
"A bit, yeah," Alex said. She cautiously rested her hand on Kelly's back and felt her inhale. "It's okay."
"No, it's not. You should call your mum or something, I'm going to be rotten company. I'll be better in the morning."
"For better or for worse, woman," Alex said. "You're not getting rid of me that easily. Budge over."
It took some doing to fit two grown women into a single twin-sized bed, but Alex and Kelly had had a lot of practice over the years. "I'm just so tired of almost getting there," Kelly said when they were settled, her breath tickling the side of Alex's throat. "Every time -- and then it happens all over again."
"I know." The thing was, she did and she didn't. Alex had been there for so many of Kelly's disappointments, but there were still the ones that had piled up before they ever met, and sometimes -- not often -- the six years between them felt like a mountain she could never manage to climb. "But every time we pick ourselves back up and try again."
Kelly sighed and let her body relax completely, pressing Alex down into the mattress. "I'm glad we're here together, at least." She submitted to having kisses pressed to her forehead and the tip of her nose, but when Alex caught her lips she pulled back. "Alex! Anita could come back any minute."
"Jill's on the rampage, she'll keep Anita busy," Alex said with a grin and another stolen kiss. "And anyway, I'm sure she's seen worse. But if it makes you feel better, I could put a sock on the doorknob, give her a proper warning -- " By the time she finished speaking both she and Kelly had dissolved into giggles, and any hope of a mood had been lost. Alex wasn't necessarily sorry. There would be plenty of time for that when they were home, in their own bed. Fooling around in sterile hotel rooms on away trips had lost a lot of its charm after they bought the house. "Well, it was worth a try."
"I'm too old for sex in a twin bed," Kelly said. "Maybe you should run off with Jill after all."
"Nah, the weather in Liverpool'd make me mental and I've never fancied being treated like a queen anyways. I reckon I'd better stick with you and your creaky joints, the poor old dogs would never understand if their mums got divorced."
"You'll put up with it for the sake of the children, huh? Sulks and all."
"Sulks and how you can't make your own bloody tea and half-kill yourself to win at table tennis and everything else that comes parceled with Kelly Smith, yeah." Alex smiled up at Kelly and was rewarded with another kiss. "Go to sleep, Kells. I'll still be here in the morning."
notes:
1. Thank you times a million to loyal beta and Britpickerkhoshgeleh_16!
2. Alex/Kelly primer
3. Alex is afraid of flying
4. England's 2011 Women's World Cup campaign ended in the quarterfinals with a loss on penalties to France
5. Jill Scott's World Cup Diary is a real thing and can be watched here
footballslash femmeslash exchange is now live! people should go read and comment on everything, especially the one written for me by the gracious albion_lass. this is particularly crucial because I am absolutely DROWNING in schoolwork right now and can't even afford the time to read and appreciate it properly myself yet ;_; UGH WHY DO I ALWAYS PROCRASTINATE WHY WHY WHYbut this is not a post about me. LADYBALLERS! ENJOY.
title: three scenes that didn't make it into jill scott's world cup diary
fandom: football RPF
pairing: Alex Scott/Kelly Smith
rating: PG-13
word count: 1650
summary: England at the 2011 Women's World Cup: two wins, one draw, one soul-crushing loss, and an infinite supply of shenanigans.
notes: originally posted here as part of
footballslash's Ladyballer Fic Exchange, and beta'd by the peerless khoshgeleh_16. further explanatory notes at the end of the fic! i.
Kelly fell asleep on the plane to Germany. She was good at that, sleeping on planes and trains and buses: necessity of a lifetime of traveling to games, she'd say, except Alex had done that all her life too and she still hated flying with a visceral terror that made her clutch Kelly's hand during takeoff and left her feeling vaguely sick for the rest of the flight. But she'd had her whole life to get used to that, and she had her iPad and her headphones and most of their teammates were awake if she'd wanted to talk to somebody. She could have kept holding Kelly's hand until they landed, if she'd really felt like it; Kelly could sleep through that too. Kelly would probably sleep through the apocalypse.
That meant Kelly was still dead to the world when the flight attendant came by with the drinks trolley, but it was just as well: she asked if they wanted beer or wine or a cocktail, flight attendants always asked and most of the time they didn't notice when Alex tried to cut them off. Alex asked for orange juice and biscuits for Kel and water and a packet of pretzels for herself and made room for all of it on her tray table until Kelly woke up.
"Wish Keith would do that for me when we travel," Faye said lightly from across the aisle; "I can't shut my eyes for a nap or he eats all my biscuits too. Got the short end of the stick, me," and Alex knew she didn't mean anything by it and it was the flight making her cranky, it was just Faye, but she had to force herself not tense up.
"So I'm a catch, is what you're saying?" She managed to keep her tone joking.
"Wouldn't go that far," Jill said from Faye's other side, half-snorting a laugh, and woke Kelly up.
"Wazzat?" she asked, a little fuzzily.
"Nothing, sit up and drink your orange juice," Alex said.
"'s there biscuits?"
"Do I look like your mum? If you wanted biscuits maybe you should have been awake to ask for them."
Kelly finally sat up and opened her eyes. "Oh, there they are," she said, ripping into the packet. "Thanks."
"Oi, maybe those were for me, you greedy cow!"
"Nah. You don't even like biscuits, anyroad." Kelly smiled around a mouthful of crumbs and patted Alex's knee under the tray. "Get some sleep, yeah? No use fretting. We'll be on the ground soon enough."
It didn't really help with the fear that the plane was going to crash and leave them all dead in a flaming wreck, but Alex still spent the rest of the flight concentrating on the warmth of Kelly's hand on her leg. At least it gave her something nice to focus on.
ii.
"Oi, Scotty, you can't just make a cuppa for yourself! What about the rest of us poor thirsty souls?"
"It's for Kells," Alex said absent-mindedly. "Where'd you lot put the milk?"
"Ooooh!"
"How come you never make me tea, Scotty?"
"Right, unfair!"
"It's in the door of the refrigerator," Fara interrupted the cat-calling without looking up from her laptop.
Jill got up from the couch and settled her chin on Alex's shoulder to watch as she brewed Kelly's tea with the ease of long experience. "I just want you to know," Jill said, mock-seriously, "that if you ever get sick of Kelly you can always come to Everton and be my wife for a change. I swear I will treat you like a queen."
"Jill," Fara snapped, slamming her laptop shut. "No taunting the marrieds. You know the rules."
"I wasn't -- !" Jill said indignantly.
"You were a bit," Casey said.
"Yeah," Unitt agreed, glancing up from her phone.
"I was serious," Jill argued.
"Serious about what?" Kelly asked as she came into the rec room. "Thought you'd got lost, Scotty," she said, accepting her cup of tea.
"About whisking your wife away from this tea-making servitude to a life of luxury with me in Liverpool," Jill declaimed.
"Life of luxury? In Liverpool?" Yanks, who'd stayed out of things so far, let out an audible snort. Casey and Eni both giggled.
"Hey! Liverpool is a perfectly nice city! Brownie, tell 'er -- Fara! Unitt!"
"I'm not getting involved in this," Fara said. She'd opened her laptop back up and was once again glued to whatever game she was watching.
"Sorry, but it really is a bit of a shithole," Unitt said apologetically. "And America's all exotic, too, innit? Dunno the weather, I guess, but it can't really get any worse, can it? I wouldn't leave America to come live in Liverpool."
Jill looked betrayed. "Traitors," she hissed. "Traitors to your city. You too, Brownie. I'll remember this."
"Makes no difference anyway," Kelly said. "Wouldn't be much of a wife if I didn't trust her not to run off on me when a younger and prettier bird comes calling. You up for a game of table tennis, Scotty?"
"Only if you're up for a crushing defeat," Alex said, grinning.
"We'll see who crushes who." Kelly leaned into Alex's side for a moment and smiled down at her. "Wouldn't run off on you, either," she added quietly.
"You're only saying that because you like how I make your tea."
Kelly sipped theatrically from her cup and took her time about swallowing. "Well," she said at last. "Not only that."
iii.
Jill and Anita had been running around the hotel yammering on about bugs in Fara's room all evening, which Alex was fairly confident would keep anyone who felt like leaving their room occupied and also meant Anita wasn't in the room she shared with Kelly. "Kells?" she called softly, knocking on their door. "It's me."
Kelly didn't answer, and for a moment Alex thought she might be asleep, but then there was a shuffling sound and the door opened. "Go on then, if you're coming in," Kelly said ungraciously, and didn't wait to see if Alex did before she retreated back to her bed and flopped down onto it, staring up at the ceiling. Alex took a deep breath and fixed a smile on her face before sitting beside her. "God," Kelly said. "I want a drink."
"Well, you can't have one," Alex said. She didn't scream, but it was a near thing. It wasn't fucking fair of Kelly to pull this now, she thought, like she wasn't disappointed too, like it didn't eat at her to know that no matter what she did she couldn't make Kelly forget about the bloody drink. Maybe once she would have said something stupid, like "why can't I be enough for you," but Alex was older now. "I'll get you a cuppa and some biscuits if you want."
"Did I fucking ask for -- oh, Alex," Kelly sighed, suddenly deflating. She rolled over and pushed her face into the pillow, muffling her voice almost to the point of incomprehensibility. "I'm sorry, I'm being a fucking awful cunt, aren't I."
"A bit, yeah," Alex said. She cautiously rested her hand on Kelly's back and felt her inhale. "It's okay."
"No, it's not. You should call your mum or something, I'm going to be rotten company. I'll be better in the morning."
"For better or for worse, woman," Alex said. "You're not getting rid of me that easily. Budge over."
It took some doing to fit two grown women into a single twin-sized bed, but Alex and Kelly had had a lot of practice over the years. "I'm just so tired of almost getting there," Kelly said when they were settled, her breath tickling the side of Alex's throat. "Every time -- and then it happens all over again."
"I know." The thing was, she did and she didn't. Alex had been there for so many of Kelly's disappointments, but there were still the ones that had piled up before they ever met, and sometimes -- not often -- the six years between them felt like a mountain she could never manage to climb. "But every time we pick ourselves back up and try again."
Kelly sighed and let her body relax completely, pressing Alex down into the mattress. "I'm glad we're here together, at least." She submitted to having kisses pressed to her forehead and the tip of her nose, but when Alex caught her lips she pulled back. "Alex! Anita could come back any minute."
"Jill's on the rampage, she'll keep Anita busy," Alex said with a grin and another stolen kiss. "And anyway, I'm sure she's seen worse. But if it makes you feel better, I could put a sock on the doorknob, give her a proper warning -- " By the time she finished speaking both she and Kelly had dissolved into giggles, and any hope of a mood had been lost. Alex wasn't necessarily sorry. There would be plenty of time for that when they were home, in their own bed. Fooling around in sterile hotel rooms on away trips had lost a lot of its charm after they bought the house. "Well, it was worth a try."
"I'm too old for sex in a twin bed," Kelly said. "Maybe you should run off with Jill after all."
"Nah, the weather in Liverpool'd make me mental and I've never fancied being treated like a queen anyways. I reckon I'd better stick with you and your creaky joints, the poor old dogs would never understand if their mums got divorced."
"You'll put up with it for the sake of the children, huh? Sulks and all."
"Sulks and how you can't make your own bloody tea and half-kill yourself to win at table tennis and everything else that comes parceled with Kelly Smith, yeah." Alex smiled up at Kelly and was rewarded with another kiss. "Go to sleep, Kells. I'll still be here in the morning."
notes:
1. Thank you times a million to loyal beta and Britpicker
khoshgeleh_16!2. Alex/Kelly primer
3. Alex is afraid of flying
4. England's 2011 Women's World Cup campaign ended in the quarterfinals with a loss on penalties to France
5. Jill Scott's World Cup Diary is a real thing and can be watched here
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Date: 2012-10-15 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 10:53 pm (UTC)