hard feelings - an erling haaland story

thirty-three

The two older Haaland siblings glanced over at each other, as they watched Amelia tend to her younger sibling, who had managed to drop pancake syrup all down him. "How are you feeling, Mils?" Gabrielle spoke. "He's been sulking in his room since yesterday so we knew you hadn't reached out to him."

Amelia let out a laugh, looking over at the siblings, a smile on their faces too. "He's so..." She covered her younger brother's ears, before glancing over to Gabrielle's young son, noticing he was fast asleep. "...fucking stubborn. For his own good. I'll give him his space until he comes to a realisation."

"I don't know how you deal with him, he makes me want to rip his hair out." His sister joked. "I love Erl, but I would not want to know him if he wasn't my brother."

"Oh, Gabs, I also want to rip his hair out, want to rip my own out too but I think we even each other out." Amelia was frowning at this point, not at Erling's sister but at the sticky state of her younger brother. "He does annoy me but unfortunately I love the man."

There was a brief silence between the siblings, as Amelia left the table to change her younger brother out of his sticky clothes. They glanced over at each other, in understanding that they simply could not comprehend the patience Amelia had towards their younger brother. She had always found different ways to put him first, even if it meant hurting her. Though they loved their younger brother, they knew that he was undeserving of someone like her. She was the complete opposite of him, he was impatient, selfish and thought that the world owed him something. Despite this, he seemed to mellow out in her presence, a soft and loving person, who thought that he would never be able to thank the universe for everything he had gotten, especially her.

Although it was a unique dynamic, it had been clear from the start that they were the missing piece to each other. After all, two puzzle pieces have to be different to fit together. They would clash if they had been too similar and although they were different in multiple ways, they still had similarities that challenged them both. Their stubbornness, their drive to put their career first and most importantly, their love for their families. It was what drew them closer together.

Throughout their youth, their differences were deemed amusing, something that people thought mellowed their differences out. He was determined and fiery. He was everything stereotypical within his zodiac sign. A person who encased himself in a tough exterior, yet if you got to know his interior, he was an easily persuaded man, with a deep emotional sensitivity to him. Though the latter was truly only exposed to his family and, Amelia and her family. Whereas, Amelia, though she was also stereotypical of her sign, she was kind and patient. Much like her other half, she was hard-working. Someone who threw all her passion into her work, now she was in a career that reflected her patience and kindness. Albeit, nothing had changed in the years they've known each other, the traits that were rampant in their youth still lingered and remained.

A small knock on her door woke her up from her nap, he stood by the door frame, she sat up greeting him with a smile, nodding her head back to invite him in. His head was hung low, ashamed of his actions from the previous day. "Hi, E." she spoke quietly, keeping her eyes on him as he sat on her bed.

"I am sorry, Mia. I was hurt, I can't believe you went through something so big and hid it from me. I'll never forgive myself for missing so much of your life." There was a silence, it didn't last long but to both of them, it felt like it had lasted as long as their separation. "To find out you went through something so huge and you could have gone thinking that I hated you is unforgivable. I couldn't sleep at all last night, I will feel guilty for the rest of my life."

She cupped his face in her hands, feeling the tears that had been flowing freely as he spoke, the guilt had consumed him more than it already was. He looked up at her, their eyes meeting for the first time since he entered. "E, you don't need to beat yourself up about it. I did it for you. I wanted to see you thrive and achieve your dreams, I'd rather one of us achieve our goals than neither of us and, telling you would've done just that. I never thought you hated me, E. I wanted you to like me more and that's my fault." Her voice was soft, softer than her usual. "If it makes you feel better, I was cheering you on from my hospital bed." The joke escaped her lips, causing the frown to reappear on his face.

He sighed. "I pushed you away because of my teammates, they teased me about you, childish things, teased me about crushing on you. Of course, I am a stubborn boy, I did not want them to be correct, so I pushed you away. Though they were right, I did have a crush on you. I still do."

"Should fuckin' hope so, E. You asked me to be your girlfriend." She nudged him. "Come on then, are we cuddling or not?"

"Only if you're big spoon."

Amelia appreciated every opportunity she had with Erling, after a frightening few years she learnt to appreciate the small things even more than she already had. Every single second with him was a privilege for her. She never imagined her best friend growing up and becoming a promising player, with the talent and ability to become a massive name within the game he loved, let alone, that he would be her boyfriend. Erling was a reminder of everything she stood for, he reminded her of her fight and strive to see him achieve everything they discussed. Whether it was by his side or from afar, as just yet another pair of the millions of eyes on him. Nonetheless, she would've been equally as proud despite whatever scenario had happened. As fate would have it, she would be able to celebrate the highs and the lows with him, by his side. She would be able to comfort him through bad matches, or injuries. Although, she had hoped the latter wouldn't even be an option.

As they lay in her room, watching 'Love, Actually' for, what seemed to be, the fifteen time in the month of December alone, he quickly turned his head to admire her. He watched as her lips curled into a smile at the famous scene of Hugh Grant dancing through 10 Downing Street; he observed her frown and look of disgust at the scene where Karen received a CD rather than the necklace she had been expecting. He had watched the film and her reactions enough to know what was playing on the screen by simply reading her expressions. It amazed him that all these years later, she was still pulling the same expressions at the same scenes, as though she was watching the film for the first time in her life; if you were to ask Erling, he would tell you that he was convinced that she knew the script to the entire film by heart at this point. If he could calculate an average, she had most likely spent an entire leap year of her life alone watching 'Love, Actually' but to Erling, it was one of the hundreds of reasons why he loved her. Despite being apart for so many years, growing into different people, she was still the warm and comforting place he remembered from his childhood and early teens. She was home. She was his Mia and he was her E.