golden blonde¹

lyon (a)

5.7k words, it's one of my favs so hope you enjoy!
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mid october 2022
two days before their game against lyon, elena is out doing some last minute birthday shopping for manu. her birthday would be the same day they would play against the reigning european champions.

just thinking 'reigning european champions' brought a bad taste to elena's mouth. it should have been them. it should have been her winning that second champions league title. instead, lyon ran rampant through them. the first half was filled with drama, and the barcelona defense wasn't having a good day. elena was stuck on the bench that day and it felt awful. losing when you knew you couldn't help your team felt utterly awful, an experience she'd never want to do over again.

lia was with her this time, stating that elena would get lost without a chaperone to guide her. (which was probably right, but elena would never admit that out loud.)

"so, what are you thinking of getting our austrian goalkeeper?"

elena had just the gift in mind.

katie loved the build-a-bear gift that elena had gotten her. the message was a lovely way to personalize it and decorating the bear with tiny clothes looked very cute on a tiny bear.

elena tugs lia to the store in the mall and her swiss friends' mouth drops.

"you're going to get her a build-a-bear as well?"

"i mean yeah, i'm going to make it tradition. i'm going to make a bear for everyone on their birthdays with a message, and a cute outfit to go along with it!"

elena later gives the bear to manu on their flight to lyon later in the day.

"for me?" manu asks in her seat. elena nods, handing her the bag, this time with red and white tissue paper.

manu presses play on the audio message, and elena's pre-recorded message rings out.

"¡feliz cumpleaños manu, espero que tengas una noche realmente genial cuando juguemos contra lyon y que tengas un gran día!"

"oh that's lovely elena! what does it mean?"

"she wished you a happy birthday, a good day, and she said she could score 5 penalties in a row on you," lia deadpans, walking by with steph not far behind her.

elena takes a moment to process the english words, "hey wait! that is not what i said!" lia is long gone by then, cooped up in her seat talking with leah. steph snickers as she takes her seat across the aisle beside frida and elena's seats.

luckily, when they land in lyon and arrive to their hotel, it's much too late for frida and elena to go out and get lost in the city again.

after a training session in lyon the day before their match against the european giants, elena is feeling confident in her abilities. in fact, she did do a penalty shootout with manu at the end of practice.

the whole team was watching them as elena took her penalties. usually she'd be nervous in front of them, but if she couldn't stand straight with just her teammates watching her, how was she to take the pressure of the world?

she sent manu the wrong way four times out of five. every time manu dove the wrong way, elena could see her teammates watching amusingly. elena saw nothing funny in it. if their goalkeeper couldn't save penalties, what would happen if they had to enter one? they would surely lose if someone missed their penalties.

the last shot, elena had known manu was going to dive to the right. elena was left footed, she'd most likely go for a power shot to her right. knowing this, elena had slowed her run down and chipped it into the top left corner, going for placement rather than power.