Lover II- ML

283. Zooming

AN: I know Barcelona already played Manchester City in the group stages during this season, but I've put them in the knockouts because I needed Mapi and Kaia in Manchester for late April (the reverse leg).

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Champions League night at Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium was set against Manchester City in the quarterfinal.

Both teams have had good campaigns up to this point, and the anticipation was high to see how they'd fair against each other now they were into the knockout stage of the competition.

Kaia warmed up alongside Jill, Ewa, Alexia, Caroline and Patri. Aitana was out with a minor ankle strain, which was the only weak spot in Barça's match day squad.

But having Jill in for Aitana gave them a different dynamic, less predictably and a completely different player for City to manage.

While the usual starting back four of Ona, Mapi, Irene and Lucy sharpened their communication and offside trap to combat against Man City's pacy forwards.

Many fans were already there, filling the stands as kickoff slowly approaches. Some where holding their banners, others just chatting to family and friends as they waited, then there were the ones recording the buildup; around the magnificent stadium, zooming in on their teams warming up and trying to spot their favourite player.

A specific phone had been focusing on only one player out of the many from either side, zooming in as much as it could to capture Mapi León clearing a header and quickly getting back in line with the other defenders, Mapi León nutmegging Lucy Bronze and proudly looking around to see if anyone saw it.

Only one phone had the audacity to purposefully avoid getting anyone else in the shot, especially when it was Kaia Morelli.

Because of course after the warmups Mapi had to b-line for her wife, had to wrap her arms around her and linger on the pitch long enough for the soft PDA to be noticeable.

Most fans loved seeing Mapi and Kaia with their lingering hands and loving looks, watching real love in its purest form and two of their best players making each other happy.

All apart from one individual who could only feel a strange bitterness settle. It wasn't quite jealousy, but there was resentment for a certain golden girl forming the more she got to know about Mapi.

Mapi was a Gemini, she got her first tattoo on her foot so her parents wouldn't notice, her current food obsession was chicken and pesto pizza and her favourite pastime hobby was drawing.

Nina knew none of this a month ago, but she had dived down a rabbit hole the moment she met Mapi.

She stalked her on Google, Instagram and Pinterest. She watched endless travel/holiday vlogs on Mapi and Kaia's YouTube channel. They went to such luxurious countries and did such exclusive activities, her envy growing as they went from Rome to Cancún, Monaco to the Maldives islands.

Then she clicked on the forty minute wedding video with nine million views. It was practically a fairytale from start to finish, every guest dressed like they were out of a Vogue magazine, each moment soft and unfiltered and so real that it would make anyone watching tear up.

Nina skipped over the ten minutes of Kaia getting ready, she took screenshots of when Mapi looked particularly beautiful in her wedding dress and cropped out Kaia's face where she could.

She knew it was a tad obsessive, but there was just something about the way Mapi smiled at her the day they shook hands in front of the flat, the way her eyes twinkled with a kind mischief.