control - Alexia Putellas

14.

Some time later, as the two of them had almost reached the top of the mountain they'd been climbing as part of Alexia's stability training, only a few meters of altitude left to make it to the viewpoint, Erin stopped, panting heavily, propping her hands up on her knees.

"What, are you going soft already?", the captain teases mischievously as she trudges past the blonde and, with a small smile on her tender lips, stops a few feet ahead, looking back at Erin.

Alexia could hardly wait to reach the top to enjoy this breathtaking view.

Because it had been far too long.

"You better be careful not to get blisters with those new hiking boots of yours... perhaps we should slow down a bit? ...I thought this was stability training, not a marathon", gasps Erin, who straightens back up, and follows behind the brunette at a slower pace.

"Those shoes...", Alexia comments as she points down to her brand new pair of hiking boots, "Were really expensive. You don't get blisters in those"

"Hmm... sure. Prove it to me tomorrow morning when you struggle to get those soccer boots on", Erin replies dryly as she trails a few steps behind the motivated captain up the narrow, rocky path.

Even now, almost at the top, the view was truly spectacular.

And it took only a few more minutes along the lonely, quiet narrow path to reach the top of Montgròs, the highest point of their hike.

"Woah", Erin marvels as she spots the breathtaking panorama for the very first time, her jaw dropping as she realizes the distance one could see from up here.

"Beautiful, no?", the captain whispers, a soft smile gracing her tender lips as she watches the stunningly beautiful blonde excitedly climb up to the lookout platform.

"Truly jaw-dropping!", the blonde exclaims, lips still agape as she reaches the very top, setting her backpack down on one of the rocks and fumbling her phone out of its side pocket to capture this view.

Because this view would definitely make it into her top five.

A snap here, another there.

Erin might shoot an entire album at the view she was offered.

She was so busy taking pictures of the breathtakingly beautiful panorama, that she didn't even notice that, in the meantime, Alexia had arrived on the viewing platform as well.

But unlike Erin, who occasionally let out an, "Oh" and in the next moment a, "Wow", the captain was completely silent.

Erin had just finished her photo session and was about to head back to her backpack to put her phone away, when she spotted Alexia - who had become absolutely quiet - running her fingertips along the mountain peaks marked on the giant map at the edge of the viewpoint.

"It's just like I remembered", the athlete whispers quietly as her trembling fingertips graze further along the map, her sparkling hazel eyes fixed on the magnificent scenery in front of them.

With a sympathetic expression, as Erin, from all the excitement, hadn't even thought about how much this place meant to Alexia, the blonde takes a few steps towards the athlete.

"He used to get blisters whenever we walked up here... presumably because his hiking boots were completely worn out", she explains with a faint, vulnerable voice, her eyes filling with tears, which she compulsively tries to suppress, just like she did yesterday.

But of course she failed. Again.

She couldn't control it.

"And we used to take sandwiches that were probably terrible... but we wolfed them down anyways... we were really hungry... always dragged them all the way up here", the captain continues sadly, her sparkling hazel eyes fixed on the mountain range and the magnificent view in the distance, as the sun slowly but surely began its descent.